Measured and Made
The 'Black Diamonds' costume from Moulin Rouge! is one of cinema’s most recognisable costumes. Preserved in the Powerhouse Collection, it returned to Los Angeles in 2025 at Vogue World: Hollywood as the first look on the runway.
‘When a costume moves beyond its original context, beyond performance, and is recognised as an object of art, it reminds us that design is a living, breathing discipline. Costumes are tactile records of collaboration – the handiwork of cutters, dyers, embroiderers, milliners and artists who translate imagination into fabric and form.’
The Powerhouse Collection is preserved for the long term while remaining an active resource for research and making. This approach underpinned the recent study of the 'Black Diamonds' costume from Moulin Rouge! – one of the defining images of early-2000s cinema.
Designed by Catherine Martin with Angus Strathie and worn by Nicole Kidman as Satine, the original dress and top hat are conserved at Powerhouse Castle Hill.
The costume is a feat of construction: a heavily boned corset layered with netting, bugle beads and paste diamonds arranged in a fish-scale pattern, paired with a diamante-edged beaver-skin top hat engineered to balance, sparkle and perform under stage lighting. Together, they fuse 19th-century corsetry techniques with mid-century showgirl glamour – a hybrid central to the film’s visual language.
Reflecting on the costume’s journey, Martin notes that neither she nor Strathie could have anticipated its enduring life.
‘I am sure Angus Strathie and I, when we designed the 'Black Diamonds' costume all those years ago, could never have imagined the many lives the costume would have had – from the chaos of a film set, to the quiet preservation of a museum vault, to the glamour of a fashion celebration.’
For Martin, that journey speaks directly to costume design as an applied art.
From Archive to Making
Nearly twenty-five years after Moulin Rouge! premiered, the 'Black Diamonds' look was invited back into the spotlight as part of Vogue World: Hollywood, where Martin’s work opened the show in an homage to Hollywood glamour and cinematic storytelling. To appear on the runway, the costume needed to be worn again – but the original could not leave museum care.
Instead, specialist makers were granted structured research access to the original objects at Powerhouse Castle Hill. Milliner Rosie Boylan and pattern maker Michelle Wiki visited the Collection to study the dress and hat firsthand, working alongside Powerhouse curators, registrars and conservators.
Their research was technical and precise. They examined how the corset was shaped and supported, how weight was distributed across the beadwork, how scalloped edges were formed, and how the hat’s proportions were calculated. Measurements were taken, seams traced and archival records consulted – including continuity materials that document how the costumes were made and worn on set – all within conservation protocols designed to protect the original objects.
‘Film-making fundamentally is a collaborative art form. Costume design, for me, has always been a dialogue – between the idea and the hand, between imagination and the incredible artisans who can translate that imagination into reality.’
She points to the depth of technical knowledge embedded in the costume.
‘The manufacture of the 'Black Diamonds' was an exercise in the power of artisans all applying their craft in different ways to create something – Indian craftspeople whose beadwork techniques have been passed down through generations, milliners who understand how to sculpt form and volume, Swarovski artisans who know how light will move across a surface, and finally Michelle Wiki, who constructed the garment and brought all the disparate pieces together.’
Custodianship in Practice
The research undertaken at Castle Hill directly informed the creation of a new dress and hat worn by Kendall Jenner at Vogue World: Hollywood. While made for performance, the new pieces were grounded in close study of the original costume and its production records.
At Powerhouse Castle Hill, custodianship is an active public service. By enabling careful access to the Collection, we ensure objects like the 'Black Diamonds' costume continue to generate knowledge and creative work – while remaining preserved for future generations.