True Love strapless dress

Tongs and roses – a modern women’s view of the reality behind love and romance combined perfectly in an artwork called True Love when designer Doris de Pont was looking for inspiration for her summer 2004/05 collection. Doris was thinking about tattoos and body decoration when she saw Auckland artist Tracey Williams’ work, in particular a series of Wonder Woman images. Tracey looks at the ways big and small ideologies exist together in everyday life and takes inspiration from old sailor tattoos with their hearts, swallows, roses and other images. Her print, True Love, features a 1950s-style multi-coloured sunfrock adorned in tattoo roses, with the centre panel a giant pair of kitchen tongs.  In this garment, Doris picked up on the 'frock' of the original artwork. She was taken with Tracey’s use of a female super hero in her art, and liked the thought of portraying busy modern women as heroes who like a bit of glamour. While the previous season's collection, Let's Gather Here, incorporated imagery from Polynesia and its traditional tattoo, True Love was inspired by the well tattooed local young women and the creative environment outside Doris' workroom on Auckland's colourful K Road.

 

Details

Photographer: Evotia Tamua
Model Five
Credit: Image courtesy of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, GH016686/1
Copyright: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence
Designer: Doris de Pont
Manufacturing location: Auckland
Garment type: Strapless dress
Material: Cotton
Features: The fabric of the dress, sash and central panel have all been screenprinted, with the rose embroidered over the print. The dress is lined in white cotton with large blue polka dots.
Colour: White, bright red, leafy greens, radiant blue, black
Label: Doris de Pont
Date: 2004