Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows fashion designer Alex Perry being interviewed while he adjusts a wedding dress worn by a bride-to-be during a fitting in his Sydney salon. Interviewer Lee Lin Chin asks him about how he negotiates with his clients and about the fitting process. As the camera moves around Perry and the bride-to-be, the bride’s mother and Chin can be seen watching the fitting. Background music plays throughout.

Educational value points

• Alex Perry is one of Australia’s most successful designers of glamorous gowns. Since he opened Alexander Perry Haute Couture in 1992 and achieved his first fashion shoot with Vogue, Perry’s name has been associated with beautiful designer gowns and with glamorous evening wear. Supermodels, high-profile social identities and celebrities have worn his gowns and he has established a successful television career as a fashion commentator.

• Fashionista is an SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) lifestyle television show and as such the clip combines information with entertainment. Perry is a personality as well as being a leading figure in the fashion industry, so the interviewer asks questions that encourage his frank and entertaining disclosures. At the same time the hand-held camera circles around Perry, showing his work in close detail. The fast-paced music provides an air of excitement.

• Perry describes his process for designing and creating a made-to-measure wedding dress, emphasising the importance of communication between couturier and client. Before beginning the design, Perry assesses the personality of the client and establishes her ‘vision’ for the dress. The collaboration continues during fittings over a 3- to 12-month period while the couture wedding dress, which may cost $3,000–$10,000 or more, takes shape.

• The significance that is ascribed to the wedding dress in the clip hints at the continued central role of wedding dresses in Western-style weddings. Queen Victoria’s wedding in 1840 established a tradition of the bride wearing a white dress that continues to the present day. The fabrics, decoration and craftsmanship of the dress reveal dominant fashions and prevalent romantic fantasies as well as the social status of the bride and her family.

• Alex Perry graduated from East Sydney Fashion Design Studio in 1984 and became an agent for Australian models before moving into fashion design. He is now a celebrity in his own right, and the Alex Perry brand is synonymous with Sydney couture. In 1998 he launched his first ready-to-wear collection.

• The clip was made at a time when weddings appeared to be making a resurgence in Australia after reaching a low point in 2001. From the mid-1970s there had been a steady decline in the number of marriages registered, with more Australian couples choosing to cohabit rather than marry. Then in 2004, 111,000 new marriages were registered in Australia, halting the steady decline.