And not just because it’s an incredible ‘unicorn’ dress – mythical, legendary – because it hasn’t faded in colour in five years of being washed with my son’s dirty socks, and doesn’t need ironing, and has only lost two sequins. A dress that I could wear to a wedding, the beach, or to do the groceries, and it would look perfect.
A dress that I’ve worn on Christmas Day, and also to my father’s funeral; five kilos heavier, five kilos lighter.

I bought the dress from a little business called Carey and Carey in my hometown of Adelaide.
That's really where the magic of the dress began.
One sunshiney day, I saw a fellow school mum wearing a darker version of the dress, glistening at pick up time from across the car park, and knew I had to have it. So on another sunshiney day very soon after, I made my way to the location of Carey and Carey. It turned out to be a house belonging to Tania Carey, who owned Carey and Carey with her twin sister, Tracey.
I don't remember the details of meeting the twins, because I really was focused on the dress. But I do recall the general impression of them being effortlessly glamorous and beautiful.
I could never have known what was really happening in their lives at that time. It wouldn't be until a few years later when our paths crossed again that Tania and I became friends, and I would learn that the dress was very special to her too.
