{"id":950579,"date":"2026-11-03T03:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950579\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T03:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:08:13","slug":"charlene-davies-influencer-shuts-down-melbourne-cup-with-incredible-golden-scale-dress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950579\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlene Davies: Influencer shuts down Melbourne Cup with incredible golden scale dress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: When international fashion icon Charlene Davies was invited to be Lexus\u2019 special guest at the Melbourne Cup Carnival<\/a>, she knew she had to go all out. <\/p>\n

Davies, known for her inventive and unusual style in both Australia<\/a> and China<\/a>, wanted to wear something true to herself for her Cup debut. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Davies, known for her inventive and unusual style in both Australia and China, wanted to wear something true to herself for her Cup debut. \u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m usually perceived in the fashion field as an irregular person. I don\u2019t really go for the traditional dress code,\u201d she said. \u201cMy fashion is not usually centred around Cup-day dressing; I\u2019m really a fashion nerd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her insanely intricate golden gown is made from over 1000 hand-cut pieces of resin, created to mimic the effects of a gold mirror. <\/p>\n

It weighs a whopping four kilograms and was created in collaboration with Shanghai-based designer Jing. <\/p>\n

The designer is an up-and-coming fashion student who Davies met by chance in Shanghai two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw her on the side of the road assembling a tremendous cake dress,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat drew my attention, so I saved her contact details. When the team approached me for the Cup day, she was the first person who came to my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together, the pair went through gowns Jing had already made. One, which was inspired by China\u2019s Terracotta Warriors, caught Davies\u2019 eye. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was covered in scaling but it was metal\u2026\u00a0I like the idea, but I\u2019m not sure if that would work for the cup day. We chatted for a bit, and we decided to use resin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

First design of the incredible look. \u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The dress is made up of over 1000 hand cut resin tiles and weighs four kilograms.\u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

She knew she wanted to go for either silver or gold to play into the Lexus\u2019 theme, but she was stuck on which colour to pick until she remembered a mantra that helped her keep afloat when she first moved to Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I first came to Australia; the first few years were quite challenging. I was\u2029a single mum juggling work and study,\u201d Davies said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was seriously stressed out and had a serious anxiety issues. That\u2019s when I came across meditation. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember one session in particular the instructor said \u2018imagine taking all the shattered pieces of yourself that goes to other people: your kids, work, your partner, and bring them back to you. Envision them coming back to you as golden light\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThat metaphor always stayed in my head\u2026 so I said it has to be gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Davies first met the designer on the street\u2019s of Shanghai, making a cake dress. \u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

When it was time to find a fascinator for her gown, she didn\u2019t want anything that would take away from the dress. <\/p>\n

She confessed it was hard to find one that fit the vibe of the gown. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe dress is very futuristic and every fascinators on the market was all very feminine, like a feather, lots of floral… \u2018I was like nothing goes with it. What am I going to do?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily, I found a something very sculptural and simple.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exclusive: When international fashion icon Charlene Davies was invited to be Lexus\u2019 special guest at the Melbourne Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-950579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}