“It was absolutely sensational, the chance of a lifetime, the people and the ambience made it like being at the Oscars. It was just incredible” – Ms Martin described her idol as “wonderful”, adding: “Darling, we drank champagne all night”.

Julia Martin

Miss Julia Martin finally got to meet the Dame herself, when she was invited to a lavish private party thrown by Dame Shirley Bassey to a select audience of just 50 people. Julia spent the evening chatting to Dame Shirley and mixing with guests including broadcaster David Frost, fashion designer Isabelle Kristensen and rock star Bryan Adams. This glittering occasion took place at Christie’s auction house in London where Dame Shirley was auctioning 50 of her most prized stage gowns to celebrate 50 years in show business.

The proceeds went to Dame Shirley’s favourite charities and a whopping £250,000 was raised, with the highest price gown going for a staggering £35,000. Julia helped towards these proceeds by becoming the highest individual purchaser on the night buying some seven stage gowns including the world famous Douglas Darnell creation ‘The Gypsy Gown’ used by Dame Shirley to open many of her shows in the early sixties. These stunning and prized gowns with such a fabulous history are all now being used to great effect in Julia’s tribute show to Dame Shirley Bassey.

The BBC took a keen interest in Julia’s involvement and had a film crew following her for the full day, you can check out the video to the left of this article. The final word however must go to Dame Shirley who took Julia to one side after the auction and commented to the world press that it was a delight that her dresses would continue to be used in a show environment and that she only wished that she could fit back into them.

1,200 miles driving, 1 ferry crossing, 4 Countries and just 24 hours to get there!

A PERSONAL REFLECTION BY JULIA MARTIN:

It all sounded really exciting and somewhat cavalier when my manager suggested that I should drive with a film crew through the night to the small village of Wattens in Austria to film a documentary. Now after the event, that original idea was not quite so grand; I thought it would be a great opportunity to explore hundreds of miles of beautiful scenery, through 4 different Countries. How wrong I was, very little countryside, but lots and lots of motorways and driving through the night. Why did I not insist that I fly? We left the UK at 3pm in the afternoon; a two-man film crew accompanied me, a ferry crossing at 9pm to sail from Dover to Calais. Then through, France, Belgium, Germany and Austria en-route to Wattens, some 1,200 miles I was reliably informed, and that was just one-way.

Swarovski Crystal Worlds was my final destination, home of the largest collection of original Dame Shirley Bassey show gowns. A priceless collection, bought at auction some 9 years ago, the only time that Dame Shirley ever sold her fabulous gowns. Some 50 gowns were auctioned on the night at a star-studded event at Christie’s in London. Swarovski had an open cheque book and bought some 18 gowns, paying the highest price of the night of £36,000 for Dame Shirley’s most famous gown ‘The Diamond Dress’ a unique Douglas Darnell creation with some 156,000 hand-stitched Swarovski Crystals, weighing in at a staggering 7 kg.

I had the pleasure of being one of only a selected handful of people to be given complete access to the vault where these wonderful dresses were stored. I was allowed to examine and photograph the dresses in minute detail, and was blown away by the incredible work and thousands of man-hours that went into the construction of these masterpieces.  What’s more I was filmed trying all the dresses on, the filming was for a Television Documentary I had been invited to work on, tracking down where all the 50 gowns that were sold at auction went too. This filming not only included my trip to Austria but it will also take me around the world to visit and interview other purchasers of the unique collection of gowns that went under the hammer.

The people at Swarovski were wonderful and over 4 days I had total control over this unique collection. My visit accumulated in performing ‘Diamonds are Forever’ wearing the Diamond Dress complete with Cape in the Crystal Dome. What a privilege to wear the most famous dress in the ‘Bassey’ collection and how often can you slip into something that is totally one-off and worth more than £36,000.

This trip was worth every single mile and I came back to the UK with not only some incredible memories, but also pictures and film footage that will last me a lifetime. What’s more I got to wear every single gown, gowns that had never been worn by anyone other than Dame Shirley Bassey and I performed in the Crystal Dome wearing the Diamond Dress, the Holy Grail of the Bassey collection.

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