Dear Jelly Sandals (Dress 192)

Dear Jelly Sandals,

I always wanted a pair of jelly sandals as a kid, but my mother was against them. Don't remember why. When I saw a girl wearing a pair of these on the tram the nostalgia was overwhelming- these were gorgeous swirly opaque ones... nom nom nom.

This dress CANNOT be worn without jelly sandals.

All my love,

IP

Dear Non-pop-Bubble-Mix (Dress 191)

Dear Non-Pop-Bubble-Mix,

You're freaking awesome. But it's difficult to find, and all the more difficult to have people take you seriously when you're 19 and blowing chewing-gum-ish-bubbles.

All my love,

IP
(This dress has blue tulle with flocked 'spots' on it. I saw this at the lincraft 50% off sale and did not buy it. Oh the folly of the stingy.)

Dear Scrabble (Dress 136)

Dear Scrabble,

I’m nerdily fond of a good game of Scrabble, or Upwords or whatever.

So shoot me.

This dress comes with a fabric marker (and no filled in letters.)

Go wild!

All my love,

IP

Dear Antoine (Dress 116)

Dear Antoine,

Your book was a central influence on my childhood, now, as it gets cold, I remember snuggling up in my cushion corner (I made one every winter next to the heater for reading) and reading the hours away. Your story entranced me, and enchants me still.

The dress is cotton dyed yellow with light blue printing.

All my love,

IP

Dear Maya (Dress 70)

Dearest Maya,
Even 'though you're close to twelve now, and almost taller than me,I will always remember you as the four year old girl who, when accompanying you to one of your friend's birthday parties, and the pass-the-parcel recipient of something pocahontas-related, you cried out 'wow! Pocahontas! Are you going to be sharing that?' with the innocence and 'out-of-the-mouths-of-babes' honesty of a child. You're growing up rather faster than i'd like, remarkably mature- but with the same sweet face I remember coaxing giggles out of when you were a baby. You're a scarily intelligent young girl (I can't say young woman. not just yet.) and above all, I'm just curious to see what you come up with.

(Also: DRESS 70! *happy dance*)
All my love,

Dear Anna (Dress 54)

Dear Anna,
There was a man called Fynn, and he loved you very much- this strange and beautiful sprite that came into his life and changed it -and mine-. The book he wrote about you was a great part of my early teen years- my mother gave it to me when she knew I needed direction.

This, (my favourite passage) grasped my imagination, visually and atmospherically:
"Outside that Baker's shop in fockland on a foggy November night I had the unusual experiance of seeing a child born. After the laughter had quietened off a bit, but while her little body was still thrumming like a violing string, she tried to say something, but it wouldn't come out properly. She managed a 'You - You - You - .' After some little time and a great deal of effort she managed 'You love me don's you?' Even had it not been tru I could not have said 'No' to save my life; true or false, right or wrong, there was only one answer. I said 'Yes'. She gave a little giggle, and pointing a finger at me, said 'You love me' and then broke into some primitive gyration around the lamp-post, chanting 'You love me. You love me. You love me.'

Today's dress was designed after a night of new theatre and exitement- and when, in the drizzling rain, I saw beautiful eucalypts bathed in the yellow light of streetlights I knew what my dress was going to be.Winter (although not technically here) is definately rearing her rainy head.

All my love,

Dear 13-Year old IP (Dress 36)

Dearest 13 Year old IP,
You thought it would be a good idea to paint your ceiling lots of different colours, didn't you. Well you weren't prepared for the angsty bland years of 15yearold mopeydom, or the minimalism-crazy year that followed that, or the antique-minimalist-colour-happy-oversaturated strangeness that remains, were you.
Oh well. It still looks pretty interesting if you don't really focus or have particularly refined taste.
(Dress specs: one piece of dark purple cotton blend for the sleeves-under-bust-curve routine, and scraps into a corset-belt, lavender cotton all the way down. For a picnic or small child's birthday party.)

All my love,

Dear Lady Cottington C/O Brian Froud (Dress 31)

Dearest Lady Cottington (Care Of: Brian Froud)
I devoured your book as a child, enveloped in the idea of exploration and discovery and (most important; for an eight year old) Fairies.

I'm a little older, and nevertheless, although the fairy phase has been and  gone, and taken with it a host of other childhood obsessions, I always come back to the book- perhaps because of the beautiful calligraphy, more probably it is the stunning watercolours by the genius Brian Froud- their delicacy and blend is simply stunning; and so we have:

Dress for a pressed orchid:

All my love,