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In the lead up to Canberra’s Food & Fashion Market and FASHFST in May, I will be featuring a number of unique Australian designers involved in these events.

It’s not often that a ready-to-wear designer involves the buyer/wearer in the design process. I was pretty amazed by this ‘dress’ by Canberran designer Karen Lee (her label, ‘renlee’), which, through its enigmatic design, offers the wearer a multitude of wearing options. The dress comes with a photographic instruction card with two suggested styling techniques, but as I found out, this is just a small sample of the possibilities, which, like origami, are only limited by the wearer’s imagination. Intrigued? Read on to see how the ways I found to style this dress.

The Dress:

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#1: The draped vest

How: Slinging the front of the dress behind the neck.

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#2 The draped flap dress

How: Twist the front of the dress, then cross over once and loop over the head.

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#3 The asymetric dress

How: Twist and cross over as before, but this time, hoop through one arm.

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#4 The chiton

How: Twist and cross over as before, but this time, pull right over the head and arms, and pull done to waist. Arrange fabric to liking.

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Karen Lee will be showing her collection at the four day fashion festival FASHFEST Canberra, on Friday 3 May 2013. She will also be at The Food & Fashion Market on Saturday 4 May 2013.