By Lisa Tutt
Recently Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre featured a series of costumes worn by pop icon Madonna that mark her image reinventions over her career, from Material Girl to American Pie to Music.
As you walk around the exhibition classic Madonna tunes play. In my case it takes me back to my childhood and reminds me of those fashion trends we can thank Madonna for: lace gloves, crucifixes and more recently cowgirl chic and the tough thigh high leather boots she wore on the Sticky and Sweet Tour, that we are now seeing everywhere.
Naturally, Jean-Paul Gaultier pieces feature strongly, as who could forget the cone bra? As the designer for Madonna’s 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour he has helped create some of Madonna’s most iconic looks and is credited for propelling her to fashion icon status. Featured is the raunchy white bustier she wore on stage during the shows, described by the exhibition as having been ‘an elaborate and sexy provocative extravaganza.’ Also displayed is the instantly recognisable bustier worn in her 1986 Open Your Heart to Me film clip and a beautiful Gaultier white lace floor length jacket.
Another stand out is the pearl and jewel encrusted gown worn by Madonna during the 1996 film Evita, that she was also photographed in for Vogue. In the film Madonna wore original 1940s women’s shoes, but as the exhibition tells us her feet were rarely shown as she became pregnant during filming.
Madonna is often called the queen of reinvention and this is evident from the contrast of her pink Material Girl gown and furs, a tribute to Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, to her sexy cowgirl casual denim look of American Pie. The flashy white Versace bling of her Music stage and her disco diva look of the Re-Invention Tour are also documented.
It is hard not to feel nostalgic when looking at these pieces even if you aren’t a huge fan, as we can all smile about those fashion risks or faux pas we have worn, or the luckier of us just seen, thanks to Madonna.
