Gold Coast business behind $4000 designer frock copy for Magic Millions apologises

The Gold Coast business that dressed Olympic great Sally Pearson in a $4000 designer frock copy for the Magic Millions has issued an apology and defended the quality and pricing of its garments.

Sally Pearson at the Magic Millions race day on the Gold Coast. Picture: Instagram

The Gold Coast fashion business that dressed Olympic great Sally Pearson in a $4000 designer frock copy for the Magic Millions has issued a public apology and defended the quality and pricing of its garments.

It comes as Ms Pearson on Thursday deleted an earlier Instagram post about the dress – hours after The Courier-Mail revealed the former athlete unknowingly wore an Oscar de la Renta copy to the ritzy weekend event.

Ms Pearson, now a sports presenter for Channel 7, is not the only high-profile client of the business, Life Is A Party: Dress For It.

Gold Coast radio personality Emily Jade O’Keeffe models garments on its website.

Gold Coast radio identity Emily Jade O’Keeffe has modelled outfits for fashion business Life Is A Party. Dress For It.

These include the $299 Natalie dress and the $179 Amina dress, copies of which sell on Chinese website AliExpress for $135 and $32 respectively.

A since-deleted post on Ms O’Keeffe’s Instagram, in a different dress supplied by Life Is A Party, read: “I’ve worn this a few times now and the COMPLIMENTS!”

The issue of the replica worn by Ms Pearson was raised by Australian artist Melanie Vugich, whose paintings have been commissioned for Oscar de la Renta fabric since 2022 and who said she was “horrified” to see a “botched copy” of her original artwork on the dress.

Josephine Dewe, who started her retail and styling business in 2022 from a townhouse complex in Coombabah, contacted The Courier-Mail on Thursday and said “there was no way I would have put Sally in that dress had I known”.

Ms Dewe said the business had vetted more than 100 suppliers and selected those that met its stringent quality standards.

She said its commitment was “not solely to delivering exquisite dresses but also to providing a seamless and enjoyable shopping journey”.

Emily Jade O’Keeffe wearing Natalie, a blue floral print maxi dress from the business.

“The additional costs tied to our dresses are a strategic investment in elevating the overall customer experience, with a critical focus on quality assurance.”

Ms Dewe said these included professional photo shoots “to ensure accurate representation on our online platform” and checking dresses before they were sent in carefully packaged and steamed so they were ready to wear.

“Beyond the standard online shopping experience, our dedicated stylists work closely with customers to curate the dress and look.”

Ms Dewe said the business also offered a returns policy.

Earlier, on Thursday morning, Life Is A Party posted on its Instagram: “We value creativity and originality in fashion. Regrettably, we recently discovered a dress in our collection that raised concerns about inspiration.

“We promptly removed the dress from our inventory and extend our sincerest apology to Sally Pearson and the original artist, Melanie Vugich.

“As a small online boutique, we source from third-party suppliers, but we’re committed to avoiding such instances in the future.

“Your trust matters, and we’re reviewing our processes to prevent recurrence.”

On Thursday afternoon, Ms Vugich also released a statement, through her publicist Josie Gagliano, of RoJo Consulting.

“I know fashion is deemed a fickle industry and this may not seem like a serious issue, but the fact is that I sign contracts with my collaborators and work closely with the team at Oscar de la Renta in New York to ensure every print I create for them is guaranteed original work,” Ms Vugich said.

“When it comes to my attention that cheap copies of our collaboration are being sold in my own country, it’s literally my responsibility to pass the information onto my client and question the copy source.

“The additional aspect of this story is that an authentic outfit featuring the very same print was being worn by another patron at Magic Millions, who won a fashion prize on the day.

“As a creative, it’s important to uphold your reputation and all I can say is that lessons have been learned.”