Original owner of this famous dress was Australian – Annette Klooger a successful singer and television presenter.

The dress was thought to no longer exist till an unexpected phone call from someone claiming that they had this dress and it was so.  The lady donated the dress to National Gallery of Victoria and they started the painstaking process of restoring the dress as close to the original as possible.

The team that restored the dress worked on it for more than 100 hours, the feathers around the hip and hem line needed to be replaced.  The trick was getting the exact right shade of blue.  They had to do 30 different dye lots, taking 45 minutes per dye lot before they got the right shade of blue.

Vintage Edwardian Fashion

Ostrich Feathers made up a huge part of the 1960’s fashion world with many dresses that were finely beaded and ruched with beautiful First Grade Feathers.  The value of those feathers ranked along with gold, diamonds and wool and was therefore a luxury item for the privileged Feather Baronesses.

Vintage French Fashion

The fashion of feather hats died with the invention of the first car, as the hats became unpractical, as the first cars were open top vehicles.

However today in the modern fashion world designers are creating show stopping dresses with Ostrich Feathers, especially so with Wedding Dresses.