By Carolyn Webb
Having spent 60 years as a costumier, Rose Chong is accustomed to chaos.
“We’re often dealing with crises,” Chong says cheerfully, referring to life in her riotously colourful warehouse in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.
Rose Chong in a workroom of her Fitzroy warehouse, with some of the Samson et Dalila costumes.Credit: Eddie Jim
Customers rush in daily, urgently needing a Hawaiian outfit for a party, or a spy costume for a film shoot.
“The staff are good at calming people down,” Chong says. “They say, ‘Look, we’ll sort it, don’t worry’.”
Chong herself confesses she has a superwoman complex.
Just three weeks ago, an old friend, Suzanne Chaundy, a director with Melbourne Opera, called.
Ready to party: Chong with customers dressed as (from left) Michael Jackson, Elton John and David Bowie.Credit: Eddie Jim
Could Chong please design and make 60 biblical-era costumes for a production of Camille Saint-Saens’ opera Samson et Dalila? Yes, she could.
The production opens at St Kilda’s Palais Theatre on Sunday, with a second show on Tuesday.
After labouring 12 hours a day, helped by talented colleagues, and with her academic husband Min Chong’s support at home, Chong delivered the costumes – ranging from regal robes to fake blood-stained peasants’ garb – on Wednesday.
Chong says she didn’t want Chaundy to be left in the lurch. In addition, “I get off on the idea of being a white knight”, she says.
Having just turned 80, Chong is busier than ever. “Honestly, it’s so impressive for anyone of any age to undertake that workload but especially at 80,” says her longtime employee, Hannah Cuthbertson.
In March, at Fitzroy Town Hall, 170 guests wearing Chong’s favourite colour, pink, attended an appropriately outrageous birthday party. Some of her cheeky friends dressed as parodies of Chong.
Up next is that for two weeks from June 4, Chong’s work will be recognised at the Rising festival.
An entire shop in Howey Place, in Melbourne’s CBD, will showcase some of her costumes and paintings, plus artist Rebecca Armstrong’s revealing portrait of her.
Art adventure: Some of Chong’s paintings will also be exhibited at the Rising festival.Credit: Carolyn Webb
Chong doesn’t seek the spotlight. Her colleague, Cuthbertson, informed The Age about the octogenarian’s latest projects.
Of the Rising festival, Chong says: “It’s an incredible honour and I’m thrilled to bits.”
Chong’s paintings derive from the COVID-19 pandemic when her business closed.
She completed a visual arts diploma, and in a Zoom class she wore a cactus costume, with an oval for her face, which made her classmates laugh.
She painted a cactus image with acrylic on board, and then painted quirky portraits of people and household items – everything from a washing machine to a stapler – and signed each with a tiny image of her face.
Rising festival co-artistic director Hannah Fox says Chong is “an icon of Melbourne” and her stop has dressed thousands of artists, so it’s fitting to celebrate her colourful legacy with the showcase in Howey Place.
Chong says her irreverent staff – “Chongettes” – and work duties won’t let the tribute go to her head.
“People keep using the word ‘icon’ and I’m trying to reconcile that with the fact that I’ve still got to clean the toilet,” she says.
“These Chongettes don’t cut me any slack for being an oldie. Once in a while they’ll help me carry something up the stairs, but other than that, we all work together.”
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