The title of ‘cult label’ gets bandied about somewhat loosely in our increasingly style conscious society, and it seems that every fashion graduate who cuts trousers high above the hip or adds shoulder pads to a jacket or top is touted as ‘the next big thing’. Unfortunately for us all, this is very rarely the case. So I will appreciate your scepticism when I tell you that fledgling Melbourne label Dress Up has fast become a cult label for a generation of young creative professionals, and I wont hold it against you if you shake your head solemnly when I tell you that this label is on the brink of bigger things. What I will do however is tell you to let your cynicism go and humour me for one moment, because here is a label that you simply must fall in love with.

Brought to life by elfin beauty Stephanie Downey, Dress Up came into its own for Spring/Summer 09-10, and is now facing winter with fresh abandon. Harnessing that quiet feminine power that stirs somewhere beneath an unassumingly still surface, Downey creates something that is at once romantically haunting as it is frighteningly compelling. Indeed, this is a young designer who is unafraid to revel in the strength of that unwieldy beast that so characterises the feminine persona but that is so often overlooked; the independent, fearless, capable woman whose simple beauty is matched only by her formidable intellect.

For winter 2010 Dress Up presents ‘Dovetail’, a collection that re-imagined the 90s in the inimitable way that has come to characterise the label since its inception. Embracing fluidity between warm, autumnal shades and layering textures upon textures, Downey uses silk, velvet and leather to remember the way we were as pubescent girls idolising our teen icons with a fresh, romantic modernity. Cleverly placed cut outs, curve defining rompers and relaxed, organically cut dresses hail the beginning of the Dress Up winter revolution.