It's A Wellington Life header image 2

Self-Made Beauties

August 26th, 2011 by admin

Ulrika is quivering with excitement as she waits to go on stage. It’s such a cliche that a dance class changes a single woman’s life, but it happened to her. Her great and good friend Angela from Auckland suggested over Skype that she take a burlesque class, to shake her out of moping over the Wayland-and-Will disaster while she saved up money to do…something. She wasn’t sure. Her friend Bohemia encouraged her, too. So, she went.

With her Swiss accent, vivid sapphire hair, and skier’s grace, she was an instant success. Now, she has a pack of other women that she runs around with, gushing via Facebook in between cocktails and macarons and not-very-taxing sewing projects.  They are all determined to be beautiful. The rest of Wellington, amused at this new subculture, goes along with it. Best of all, next month Ulrika is making her public burlesque debut.

For the moment, she’s smug about being chosen as a model in the biggest style event of the Wellington year, thanks to a tip from the dance teacher. All around her, Wellington’s beauties and dancers are being groomed for the stage by Wellington’s stylists and hairdressers. Some of them are grumpy at being hidden inside black-light assemblages or three-metre ambulatory baskets. Ulrika, giddy with success and inclusion, is more charitable. It’s all Wearable Art, isn’t it? And she’s going on first for her group.

“And now…the Architectural division…”

Ulrika hoists the dodecahedron-shaped assemblage that she inhabits, and tiptoes onto the World of Wearable Arts stage.

Tags:   · · 2 Comments

2 responses so far ↓