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.
