Kylie Gets Emotional At 'Kylie On Stage' Launch

Throughout her extraordinary career, Kylie Minogue has worked with some of the world’s top fashion designers, including couture heavyweights like Dolce and Gabbana, Karl Lagerfeld, and scandalising Euro iconoclast Jean Paul Gaultier. But, as the pint-sized princess of pop revealed at the Kylie On Stage Exhibition opening this morning, if she had to run into a burning building to save any items from her vast collection of costumes, she’d rescue the 50p gold hotpants made famous in her Spinning Around video and the overalls she wore as Charlene Robinson on Neighbours.

It's telling that these cheap, but irreplaceable items are so important to Minogue. Talking at the launch event for the Art Centre Melbourne’s major new retrospective of Kylie’s on-stage wardrobe, she was deeply sentimental about the clothes that have been such an important part of her almost 30-years in the spotlight. “I had a sneak preview of the exhibition yesterday and they practically had to kick me out,” Minogue shared. “These costumes are taken such good care of, which is a far cry from the way I remember them. Backstage you’re just “quick, get it off me, into the next one!” Quick changes are pretty hectic!”

Her on-stage persona has shed more than a few skins over the years and it’s clear hearing Australia’s greatest pop star talk about the vast array of corsets, gowns, headdresses and high-heels she’s worn on tour, that she has a very intimate relationship with these clothes. There’s a touching, almost wistful nostalgia woven in among the sequins, Ostridge feathers and Swarovski crystals. Minogue said she felt “very emotional” viewing the exhibition in situ for the first time. “Seeing friends and crew in old footage, many of whom are still with me, I thought, “wow, we look so young.” We had no idea what was waiting for us. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head hadn’t been written. All The Lovers hadn’t been written. There were so many parts of my life and my journey to come, so seeing those pieces is very moving,” she said.

Kylie's outfits have been showcased in the past, but a unique aspect of this newly curated collection is the scope of time it captures. It features costumes from Kylie's very first tour, Disco Dreams, which kicked-off in Japan in 1989, long before Minogue had conquered the pop world and begun her formative fashion collaborations with elite couturiers. “Some of these outfits start before there was even fax machines; there was just telex! I don’t think bubble wrap had been invented, there certainly weren’t any special hangers,” she recalled. “I think my original wardrobe for my first tour could have fitted into a couple of shoeboxes. From a slight distance, to see that in the displays and that now I have huge gig cases and I’ve worked with incredible international designers… I’d never have reached that time and that place without the lycra and home-made costumes my Grandmother sewed, throwing a few beads on something, back in 1989.”

Minogue said she hoped the exhibition would offer some inspiration, not only for the next generation of aspiring Aussie music talent, but also the future designers who might dress them. “If I had the opportunity to see Prince’s wardrobe when I was 14, I would have been there every day – in fact, I think we could share the same manikin, I think we were just about the same size,” she joked. “I think it’s a great opportunity for fans, but also people who just appreciate design and fashion, and anyone who wants to learn more about how fashion works on stage because it’s very different to what you’d wear on the red carpet.”

While practicality and durability have to be a consideration for many of Kylie’s on-stage outfits – “Sometimes a piece would arrive with a beautiful, delicate zip, and we’d have to say, ‘change the zip!’ There's no time for Zip-Gate!” – as the muse of many of fashion’s most celebrated designers, she has showcased priceless couture looks alongside the rank and file costumes. “I’ve worked with Dolce and Gabbana and Jean Paul Gaultier a lot. We have a friendship and an understanding, and that’s pretty cool. Some pieces you'll have doubles or triples of, but couture pieces – that you have just one of, so we try not to wreck it! There’s an amazing technicality, that no one is ever going to see in the audience, but up close the artistry and the technical aspect of these clothes is amazing. Fittings go on and on, but they wouldn’t turn out as well without that dedication.”

The Arts Centre Melbourne presents Kylie On Stage at Gallery 1 to 22 Jan 2017