Franny Gets Frocked: Fairytales

Dress: Portmans guipure lace, grosgrain ribbon (added by me)

Sandals: Florsheim leather, wood

Bag: Oh Jo Jo Boutique natural woven straw, diamantes

Watch: Gift, Swatch resin, neoprene

Bangle: Musee de l'Orangerie resin, paper, silver

Finally sharing all of the beautiful pictures from the current exhibition "Fairy Tales" at Southbank's Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) which celebrates centuries of beloved folk stories through art, film, costume & design. From opulent gowns & magical carriages on a time limit to mystical mirrors & twisted, gnarled woodlands, viewers can explore timeless themes of bravery, justice, humility, loyalty, cunning & aspiration... as well as all-important good versus evil. Weaving together the works of famous artists such as Gustave Dore, Yayoi Kusama, Henri Matisse's work for the Ballet Russes production of "The Nightingale" (1925), Patricia Piccinini; writers such as Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Anderson & Charles Perrault; amateurs such as Elsie Wright & Frances Griffiths who fooled the world with their "Cottingley Fairy Pictures" in 1917 as well as snippets/props/costumes from lauded cinematic masterpieces such as Jean Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bete" (1946), Jacques Demy's "Donkey Skin" (1970), Jim Henson's "Labyrinth" (1986) & Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" (2010) it is definitely worth the (admittedly high) admission price of $29.

For the occasion - a mother/daughter gallery trip followed by lunch at one of our favourite restaurants in Southbank Parklands - I wore a gorgeous pink floral guipure lace tiered mini dress with sweetheart neckline & grosgrain ribbon tie straps from Australian label Portmans, a pair of silver leather slingback sandals with stacked wooden heels & large gold buckles from Florsheim for the effortless mixture of comfort & style & carried a natural woven straw bucket bag with diamantes from the delightful Oh Jo Jo Boutique at the "top of town" in Ipswich to carry all the essentials - including the omnipresent facemask & hand sanitizer. When it came to jewellery, I donned the amazing Swatch watch that showcases the artwork of Amadeus Modigliani & a matching chunky bangle depicting a work from the artist's "Reclining Nude" series (1917) that I picked up at the gift shop of the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris a few years ago.

Keep scrolling to see how it all unfolded...

"La Belle et la Bete" (1946) directed by Jean Cocteau

Costumes from "Donkey Skin" (1970)

A musical fantasy film in France, it is based on a 1695 story by Charles Perrault & stars the divine Catherine Deneuve as the Princess whose widowed father decides that he must marry her in order to live up to his family credo that he must be wed to "the most beautiful woman in all the land." Horrified, she runs away to the forest disguised in a donkey's skin to avoid the incestuous marriage & finds work as a pig keeper/farmer in a neighbouring kingdom. When the price of that kingdom spies her in her hut - dressed as herself without the donkey skin - he falls instantly in love but before he can act on this, he is stricken with illness & asks that Donkey Skin bakes him a cake to nurse him back to health. The princess hides her ring in the cake & with this trinket, the prince is sure that the beautiful woman he saw in the forest reciprocates his feelings of love. When he is well again, he declares that he will marry the woman whose finger fits the ring & has all the women of marriageable age in the kingdom try it on their fingers. Last of all is the lowly Donkey Skin who is revealed to be the owner of the ring & the beautiful princess in disguise. They marry & live happily ever after.

Clearly influenced by Joan Lindsay's 1967 novel and/or Peter Weir's 1975 cinematic masterpiece "Picnic at Hanging Rock," which some consider to be the ultimate Australian folk tale of the private schoolgirls who go missing after a field trip to the rock on Valentines Day in 1900, never to be seen again...

A quick mother/daughter selfie inside the Witch's House...

Costumes & original pictures from both Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" children's picture story book from 1963 & Spike Jonze's 2009 film adaptation... with help from the genius puppeteers in Jim Henson's famed "creature workshop," that is!

More Jim Henson brilliance... this time costumes, props & stills from 1986's fantasy epic "Labyrinth" starring the inimitable David Bowie & a very young Jennifer Connelly. For those who are unfamiliar with the film, it centres around Connelly's Sarah, who rashly declares that she wants her baby stepbrother Toby to be taken away by the goblins in her storybook. When the Goblin King Jareth appears to grant her - already fiercely regretted - wish, she is given just 13 hours to solve the enormous, otherworldly labyrinth to save him before he is turned into a goblin forever.

Lewis Carroll's portrait of Alice Liddell (1852-1934) the inspiration for his tomes, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" & "Through the Looking Glass."

The Cottingley Fairy Pictures

A series of photographs taken by cousins Elsie Wright & Frances Griffiths who lived in Cottingley near Bradford in England. The girls, 16 & 9 respectively, often played at the bottom of the garden & after being tired of being in trouble for the wet clothes, took Elsie's father's camera & set out to take pictures of their "fairy friends." The resulting pictures - taken using paper cutouts of fairies on hat pins - didn't fool Elsie's photographer father, Arthur but her mother, Peggy, believed them to be authentic. The pictures even fooled renowned author & devout spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes) who used them to illustrate an article he wrote on the existence of fairies in a magazine in 1920.

Where magic & mayhem collide, maybe?!

Costumes from Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" film (2010) starring Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter as well as Australian actress Mia Wasikowska.