SHAWL

The shawl formed part of the attire worn by Michelle to her school ball in 2007. The same fabric was also used to make up a side panel on her ball gown. Her small evening bag also complimented her dress.
The ball dress, shawl and evening bag were made by my mum (Jenny Wylie) in 2007 for my year 12 school ball. Kelmscott High was unusual by having their ball at the end of the school year (around November, after TEE exams). At the time many other high schools had switched to having the year 12 ball at the start of the school year. This was because the ball became such a big event for students (especially the girls) and the other schools didnt want students distracted at the end of the year when they were sitting TEE exams. Our school hadnt worked that bit out just yet, so girls at the end of the year werent always focused on exams because they were trying to work out their dresses, hair and make-up for the ball.

For this dress I chose a pattern and then asked mum to adapt it a bit to make it more interesting. We had some challenging discussions about it as the fabric that Id picked would not hold the shape of the pattern. Originally I wanted the fabrics reversed, so the insert panel in the skirt would be the majority of the dress, and the purple satin would be used as the insert. But the patterned insert fabric is very lightweight material and doesnt hold the structure of the bodice very well. After some minor disagreements mum and I worked it out and we compromised on a few things. I think our experiences with designing this dress is probably why she hasnt offered to make my wedding dress. It would probably be too much stress on our otherwise quite good relationship.
I didnt have a date for the ball, which I wasnt worried about. Noone had asked me, and I didnt go out of my way to find a date either. My friends were in the same situation so the four of us (Shona Jennings, Nicole Young and Merle Fernandez) hired a black London cab to take us there and we had a great time just doing our own thing. We drove up to Kings Park for photos, with a few of the other limos that people had hired, before heading to the Hyatt Hotel where the ball was.
School balls, inspired by the school ball tradition in the USA had started to replace the traditional debutant ball in the 1970s. Debutant balls were seen as outdated and no longer relevant to the local community.