Transcript of
Kylie's Costumes
A look at Kylie Minogue's costumes with curator Margot Anderson Performing Arts
Collection
The Arts Centre
The Collection was donated in 2003 and came in in a number of consignments. Some
of the material was actually dropped off to the Collection by Kylie’s parents, Ron and
Carol Minogue. The Collection is really complete. The fact that the costumes come
directly from Kylie, all the stories and the history are still very much intact, so we get
a direct line of communication from the performer, in this case being Kylie where we
can tell the stories that she tells us.
The Museum Dress is significant for quite a number of reasons. The fact that it was
actually created as a gift to the Art Centre, it became the signature image of the Kylie
Exhibition which has gone on to tour around the UK as well as Australia but also, it
shows her love of costume and it also shows the fact that she’s very aware of the
preservation and the stories that she’s actually preserving by handing it over to a
Collection such as ours. Kylie was involved in the design process for the Dress.
When you look at the costume itself in the flesh, she’s actually gathered a whole lot of
bits of fabric and trims that have been incorporated into a number of really iconic
images. The costume is a combination of all those amazing images that we’re all so
familiar with as well as elements of the costumes she’s loved.
This was one of the first of Kylie’s costumes to come into the collection; it was
donated back in 1991. It was actually worn for her very first International tour called
‘Enjoy Yourself’ and that was in 1990. Designed by Australian designer Nicole
Bonython, it’s a good example to show where Kylie started off and the fact that she
was working with quite local designers.
The showgirl costume designed by Kylie herself and her stylist William Baker for her
‘Intimate and Live’ tour in 1998, is again significant on lots of different levels.
Firstly, I guess it’s the unveiling of the showgirl persona that she’s gone on to re-visit
over a number of her tours and it seems to be perhaps the most loved image of Kylie.
The budget for ‘Intimate and Live’ was obviously of a much smaller scale and it’s
interesting that there was a lot of stories that have come out of just that alone. The
fact that they had made a decision when this costume was designed that all the
beadwork and the sequin work would actually be done by hand…and I think over
time they realized how much work was involved in that and it led to basically Kylie,
her mum and her nana and William Baker, her stylist, actually all sitting around
Kylie’s kitchen table in Melbourne sewing on those sequins and that beadwork till the
very last minute before the show. The head dress for this costume was designed by
Philip Rhodes and at this stage the headdress is quite restrained but over time the head
dress has become more and more spectacular.
This was designed by Julien Macdonald for Kylie’s ‘On a Night Like This’ tour
which was in 2000. It’s a really good example of how complete a costume can be in
her Collection because it also has the head dress as well as the shoes. The head dress
was designed by a well known English milliner, Stephen Jones. The shoes were
actually designed by Manolo Blahnik and there are quite a few of Manolo Blahnik
shoes in the Kylie Collection. Kylie’s mastered the art of being able to perform fairly
rigorous, complex dance routines in very high heels as well as being able to go up and
down quite often, quite long flights of stairs that are part of the stage set.
This belt was designed by Julien Macdonald for Kylie’s ‘On a Night Like This tour in
2002 and when Kylie handed the Collection over to the Performing Arts Collection
she actually was quite keen for visitors to see the elements of wear and tear that
particularly tour costumes have over time and this one’s a good example of that you
can sort of see where the Swarovski Crystals have come away from the leather in this
area here…just from probably really quick changes over time of many, many
performances.
The costume collection holds lots of memories for Kylie herself about the
performance and Kylie actually came in at some stage and visited the storage area and
it was interesting to see her reaction to this dress when she pulled it out. It was
actually worn for the ‘Fever 2002’ Kylie tour and was designed by Dolce and
Gabbana, as the entire tour was, and this was the act that she performed the song
‘Crying Game’ in and as well as being quite an emotional performance itself she
actually had to get up and down quite a big staircase with a very long train, on her
high heels as always but also a very quick change…she had to get into the dress in a
matter of probably seconds and it all came flooding back to her when she actually
held out the costume and had a look at it and all the costumes have that lovely
element of memory and performance captured in them.
Kylie revisited the showgirl in quite a spectacular way when she launched her
‘Showgirl’ tour in 2005. It started with this costume which was actually designed by
John Galliano and it was in the style of the Las Vegas Showgirl and again it was very
heavily beaded but this time with Swarovski Crystals as well as quite an ornate head
dress of Ostrich feathers and quite a large and quite heavy bustle, which would have
been quite difficult I’d say to move in and dance in.
‘I Should Be So Lucky’ was Kylie’s first single with Stock, Aitken and Waterman
from the album ‘Kylie’ which was released in 1988. The costume was designed by
Australian designer Jenny Bannister an’ I think it captures the innocence that people
associated with Kylie at that time and in particular through her character as Charlene
on Neighbours which was becoming more and more well known.
These are probably the earliest shoes that we have in Kylie’s Collection. They’re
from the ‘Rhythm of Love’ album photo shoot from 1990, a good example of, again
the height of the shoe that Kylie tends to favour.
The Costume Collection reflects all the different phases that Kylie has gone through
as a performer and particularly as a recording artist and many people remember this
phase particularly. It was when she actually was working with an independent
recording label ‘deConstruction’ and this signalled a new direction for Kylie as a
recording artist. The single was released in 1997 and showed Kylie’s sense of
humour, if you like, and the fact that she’s able to use costume to create new
characters because in this video there are actually four Kylie’s all given the labels that
the media had pretty much given her throughout her performing career. One of them
was Cute Kylie, this one was actually Dance Kylie then there was Indy Kylie and Sex
Kylie and the four Kylie’s pretty much battled it out for supremacy throughout the
video and I guess it’s a good sort of healthy way of showing that that Kylie can
actually embrace the way she’s been perceived through out the years.
The video for ‘Spinning Around’which was released in 2000 turned Kylie’s career
around. The major focus of the video seemed to be the gold hot pants. The story goes
that they were found in a flea market for 50p and pulled out of the wardrobe the night
before the video. They’ve since gone on to become quite a legend in their own right.
The white hooded jump suit for the video ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ was
designed by English designer Fiona Duran. It again has become quite an iconic
costume. The costume really comes to life when it’s in motion. The weight of the
fabric and the way that the actual costume was cut was all very cleverly considered
and you can actually see all those amazing design elements when Kylie moves in the
clip.
Because the Collection is so complete chronologically, we’re actually able to chart
Kylie’s development as a performer through the costumes that she’s worn in
particular videos throughout her career. This one was actually designed by Helmut
Lang and I guess that reflects her status from, you know, the very early days working
with Australian designers through to these International renowned designers.
The was Kylie’s first Mardi Gras performance. It was designed by Xen Pardoe Miles,
an Australian designer. The Collection holds a number of costumes from one-off
performances, just like this one. They show the level of care and consideration that
gets put into these very quick performances that are sometimes just as memorable as
her tours and her music videos.
This costume was designed by English designer Owen Gaster. It was worn for a
performance of the duet that Kylie recorded with Nick Cave ‘Where the Wild Roses
Grow’ on Top of the Pops in 1995.
This costume was designed by Michael Wilkinson for the closing ceremony of the
Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. Kylie appeared on a giant thong and performed
her hit single ‘On a Night Like This’.
Kylie wore this costume to perform a duet with Justin Timberlake for the Brit Awards
in 2003 and there’s a story that goes along with it that’s actually relayed by the
designer Julien Macdonald. The nature of the performance changed quite radically,
quite quickly and it meant that the costume that they had intended for this
performance was not going to be suitable. So Julien Macdonald was approached quite
last minute to design this dress for Kylie and was quite shocked to see when he
watched the awards that night that the dress had been slashed from what had been a
floor length from what had been a full length gown with a beautiful fishtail to become
quite a spectacular micro-mini.
We also have the costumes that Kylie’s worn on the Red Carpet and again we’re able
to see the very early days, like this one that she wore when she went to the Logies
Awards in 1989 and it was an important moment for her then because she’d sort of
‘scooped the pool’ and won, I think, about four Logie Awards that year. Kylie was
involved in the design process…she worked on it with Gursel Ali who was working in
the ‘Neighbours’ wardrobe department at the time…and then all the way through to
Martine Sitbon, a French designer, who actually designed her Grammy Awards dress.
So you can see toping and tailing of her career.