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Last updated: 26 November 2000
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Do your eyes deceive you ? If there's a challenge,
then go for it !
 In the past couple of years I've discovered another facet of Pamela's desire to
get everything 'just right' - trying to outdo the fashion (in)famous on their own ground.
But there's one particular redhead I've specialised in and it's given plenty of fun. For
the original impetus please see 'The Original Challenge'. The latest
invocation is 'She Wore A Yellow Dress'. And black and white did
divert us a little - see 'Orange After All'
She Wore A Yellow Dress !
| The second outing was triggered by the picture to the
right. (Who say Fergie can't be elegant sometimes ?) This just seemed to crying
out - the sweeping yellow lines, the elegance of the satin and the lace. So of course I just had to have one. My exceptionally competent dressmaker rose
to the challenge again with alacrity. The material was hard to find, and some accomodation
might have to be made with the lace (which is white over yellow). Accessories were a joy
to collect, though the necklace wasn't as close as I'd like. But the result certainly
bears comparison.
Again the best time to wear it was Beaumont Society's weekend in
Rotherham - just the place to pander to one's vanity ! The comments were flattering of
course, but the best thing was that it was a lovely dress to wear, which is what
it's all about !
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The Original Challenge
| The starting point for all this fuss was seeing the
picture on the right in June 1996. I took one long look and decided I just had to have
one. I posed this as a nice problem to an extremely competent and
very TV-friendly dressmaker I'd met, who relishes challenges posed by a simple single
photograph. Could she make this for me ? Of course she could, and did. As the picture was
black and white we had a little freedom with the colour, but decided on silver-black.
After a couple of months, a couple of fittings, some ingenuity with the arrangement of the
collar and sheer dress-making skill, she solved it magnificently.
At this time Pamela was perhaps more interested in the dress than
anything else. When to wear it ? The best opportunity seemed to be the Beaumont
Society's weekend in Rotherham - just the place to pander to one's vanity !
But of course she had to get the accessories right - the gloves were
simple, plain shoes were ex-wardrobe and the clasp-bag had to be plain, but the necklace
and earrings (choosing rubies of course) required an expedition to the 'wholesale'
jewellers in Poland St., which thankfully came up trumps. Then the choice of wig - well
what about being a red-head with her hair 'up' -perhaps just like Fergie ? So
that was what I decided, using a wig I'd had for some years, but which was perhaps just
waiting for the right moment. |
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| Before she knew, time had flown and Pamela went North to the weekend,
with the 'secret weapon' and accessories safely packed. On the chosen night I started the
transformation. The part I was most worried about was getting the red hair done
‘up’ properly and accurately enough - pretty much everything else for the
duchesal outfit I had complete confidence in. Well I put the hair up myself carefully (on
my own head) and it really worked. I’d even carefully cut the ‘ringlets’
that would hang down in front of the ears. More than one person subsequently congratulated
me on the hairstyle and asked whether a hairdresser had done it for me - this gave me no
end of a fillip. Soon the new dreamlike dress and all the accessories were on and looked
perfect, so I set out to meet my public ! |
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To say it worked well would be something of an
understatement. Helen, one of my close TV friends, came out of the hotel lift and looked
straight at me without recognising me. More than half a dozen people looked at me and said
"That’s Fergie !". It was a really special outfit that made me feel really
special. It was so good that I continued to wear the dress for the rest of the evening. After a magnificent dinner, where the Duchess insisted on drinking only bubbly
and offered to sign autographs for cash to help clear her overdraft, there was a
‘Miss Elegance’ competition, for which thirty-three ‘hopefuls’
entered. Her ex-RH needed cash sufficiently to enter and she made the last ten, but again
she didn’t place, but received many flattering remarks later from spectators (well
they really couldn't have a 'Royal' winning, could they ?) I certainly felt exceptionally
superior when ‘parading’, knowing that everything was just so. A beautiful end
to a hugely enjoyable weekend.
In fact the dress was so good that Hex-RH came out again on two
subsequent occasions. On one friends helped me to get photos of as close a pose to the
original as we could - standing still for ten minutes while someone tilts your head or
moves your hand just an inch is something of an ordeal.
The final result is shown on the left and was every bit as good to wear
and experience as you might think.
(As the original photo was in black-and-white, so is this article, for
what it looks like in colour, see Pamela's Gallery) |
Orange After All !
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Recent intelligence has arrived from my diligent correspondent,
suggesting that the original dress was not black or silver, but rather a gorgeous
shade of dark orange. But it also, in
showing a back view, reveals that the Duchess went just a little over the top, with a
trailing chiffon bow, rather than just a cummerbund that my style-conscious dressmaker had
inferred.
For the bronze version of Pamela's copy, see Rotherham
2000
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