By her exuberant fashion tastes alone, the SBS newsreader Lee
Lin Chin commands attention.
But under the sharp lapels and flounced skirts is a very private
woman whose measured personality young designer Natalie Turtle
tried to capture in a dress she tailored for her to wear.
"I met her and she spoke about why she wears things," Ms Turtle,
26, said. "One of the things Lee Lin said was that she didn't like
to give all of herself away because she felt it would compromise
her identity."
Ms Turtle won a competition at the Canberra Institute of
Technology where students used Chin as their muse, getting to know
her interests and what she looked for in design.
The resulting knee-length dress is made of calico, a fabric
maligned by designers for its use in mock-ups and samples, but
requested by Chin.
"It's like a blank dress you could paint on," Ms Turtle
said.
Panels on the dress are designed to ascend and descend - towards
and away from the body - to reflect Chin's ambivalence towards her
public persona. "That willingness and reluctance to give of
herself," she said.
Chin liked the piece for its geometric lines and because it was
a dress. She had tried on a draft of it in calico and encouraged Ms
Turtle to keep the fabric in her final design.
Chin modelled the dress at the opening of a photo exhibition at
the National Archives of Australia last night. Strike a Pose
… with Lee Lin Chin shows how the changing social mores of
the 1960s and '70s were reflected in clothing.
Men were stepping out in purple suits, women were ditching
gloves and stockings for short shorts and mini shift dresses, as
both tried to shake off moral conservatism and cultural cringe.
But Chin was careful not to read too much into what really
boiled down to the wearing of clothes. In those years, she was in
Singapore marvelling at the work of an Indian tailor her mother
hired to make clothes for her three daughters. He would size people
by eye and sew by hand.
"I rarely use that word: fashion. Fashion implies what is the
trend and I don't think of clothing in those terms.
"What we wear should be dictated by how well it suits us. Your
personality, your temperament and your figure."
11 Jul-12 Oct 2008
National Archives of Australia
Queen Victoria Tce, Canberra