A Charlie Brown ensemble comes with requisite live furry accessory at the Beautiful Girls' Fashion Lunch at Flemington yesterday.
Photo: Joe Armao
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Photos Photographers from The Age capture the style of Melbourne Fashion Festival 2008.
SOMETHING had to give. The Melbourne Fashion Festival was going swimmingly: packed houses, catwalk shows slicker than ever. Everybody happy.
Then the budgie died. And the purple poodle hit the catwalk. There was a pink poodle, too, and two fluffy cream ones — with tangerine and red ribbons — at yesterday's Beautiful Girls' Fashion Lunch, staged for 700 by Myer and the Victoria Racing Club at Flemington.
The dogs skittered out in a spectacularly cute catwalk moment, each led by a matching, hip-swinging model in purple, pink or tangerine silk.
There were gasps and applause, but a fizz of concern.
Myer fashion's national publicity director, Natalie Perrin, admitted that when she heard the dogs were going to be dyed, her first questions were: "What sort of dyes? How?"
An owner of one of the dogs, supplied through the Poodle Club of Victoria, said the dyes were vegetable based and "absolutely harmless".
So, Ms Perrin said, she relaxed: "It was just a bit of fun … it created a bit of theatre in the show."
It sure did. But earlier, reports of a budgie dying in a fashion installation by artist Joost Bakker for Sydney designer Lee Mathews' Armadale shop ruffled enough feathers to make even happy coloured poodles seem distinctly "not right".
Mathews was reportedly devastated by the death. But the unfashionable question still hung in the air: is it OK to use any living creatures to entertain? The RSPCA says no.
"It's disappointing to see that people are using animals in this manner," said RSPCA inspectorate services manager Greg Boland. "There's no offence under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, but it's exploitative."
At the Flemington event, however, there was more talk of frocks than morals.
Myer presented a flawless show of its top designers' collections that seemed cunningly geared to chic women "of a certain age", featuring US singing sensations Mandy Moore and Sean Kingston.
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