Preview

Something unprecedented happened this weekend.

I was given this handmade, full-skirted, tight-waisted, oxblood leather dream to babysit for a little while. My fingertips are still tingling.

When I first started my blog, almost a year ago, I approached Amanda-Leigh O’Connell, the visionary behind local leather label, eponymous, and in a very thinly veiled way, I implied that I would happily blog about her beauteous collection if she’d let me spend a night with one of her dresses.

Months later, emails, tweets and Facebook friendships have ensued, and Amanda has graciously given me this beauty to care for while she is gallivanting in Europe, no doubt sipping fine wines, fondling off cuts of nappa leather and contemplating, generally.

We met at Deluxe on Saturday. Amidst the bustle of ancient punks, smiling Death Racers and the aroma of coffee and rum, Amanda handed me an A1-sized white box. I got my first look at the frock in the boot of a friend’s car, and, yes, I gasped. This is the dress that was featured in the May issue of ELLE, fresh from the shoot and straight into my quivering palms. Worries that it wouldn’t fit were soon allayed, when it zipped up exquisitely to reveal that it was practically made for me. Of course. A year’s worth of fantasizing is clearly worth something.

I will be on the hunt for the right occasions to which to don this here piece of scarlet-lined love. Did I mention that it has pockets?