Pamela Easton and Lydia Pearson of Brisbane-based label Easton Pearson are two of Australia's most innovative and successful fashion designers. Their distinctive collections are sold through some of the world's top boutiques, from Browns in London to Villa Moda in Kuwait City.

They first met in the 1970s and formed a friendship based partly on their mutual love of vintage dress, theatre and art; however it was not until 1988 that they set up in business together. Pamela Easton worked as a fashion buyer in Brisbane before moving to Melbourne to work with Sportsgirl Australia. Lydia Pearson completed an arts degree and began producing a small fashion range after a dress she had designed and worn to a party was bought by a boutique owner. In the late 1980s Easton returned from Melbourne, seeking a change from corporate fashion and contemplated setting up a small fashion label. Easton and Pearson discussed their aspirations and finding they were almost identical decided to turn their long term friendship into a design partnership.

While they acknowledge current fashion trends, their collections reflect an independent and experimental vision of dress drawing on broad and eclectic sources of inspiration ranging from their passion for vintage and traditional textiles and dress to characters from old movies, theatre and books.

Using predominantly natural fibres they are best known for creating evocative otherworldly collections of richly romantic clothes featuring beautifully embroidered, beaded and hand crafted fabrics.

Their signature is the beautiful textiles they design for use in the collections; often featuring handcrafted embroidered, beaded, appliquéd and sequinned fabrics. There is an intimacy about their clothes which reflect the heart and mind of the designers and the accomplished hand of the maker. Easton and Pearson design the clothes and all the decorative detail and pattern on their textiles and work with skilled artisans in India, Hong Kong and Vietnam to create the decoration on the cloth. Garment production is completed in their studio in Brisbane, Australia.

Easton and Pearson work collaboratively on all their collections, sitting down together to explore the broader collection themes and then the design detail. Their collections reflect their prolific creativity in both the variety of textile techniques explored and adapted, and the sourcing and melding of a whole world of contemporary and traditional ideas and arts.
The Powerhouse Museum has acquired key pieces from their collections as part of the Fashion of the Year program and from the exhibition Sourcing the Muse.

The 'Oz Frock' was commissioned by The Weekend Australian Magazine to celebrate the 20th anniversary of both the Easton Pearson label and the magazine.

In designing the dress Easton Pearson created a print based on newspaper text from The Weekend Australian on the day it was launched. This was overlayed with wattle sprigs, a reference to the famous Norman Hartnell wattle dress worn by Queen Elizabeth II on her first visit to Australia in 1954. Finally it was hand beaded and embellished with tiny Swarovski crystals by Easton Pearson's master embroiderer in Mumbai.