Fab New Doos! Esther's Retro Revival

Don’t Put These Actresses in a Box – They Can Sing Too!

- Fleur Mealing

Adorning the curtain rail of Westside actress Esther Stephens’ bedroom is an array of vintage dresses that look like they’ve arrived straight from the 1960s.

Complete with impressive back-combing and thick eyeliner, Esther and her friends Olivia Tennet and Aria Jones fawn over the rainbow of retro frocks, which are perfect for their new girl band The Up Doos.

“I have been collecting these vintage dresses for most of my adult life and sometimes I would look in my wardrobe, especially when I was having a baby, and think ‘What am I doing with all of these blimmin’ old dresses?!’” laughs Esther.

“Then an opportunity like this comes along and you go, ‘Yes! I have heaps of stuff!’”

The inception of The Up Doos is a delightful tale. Esther (33) tells the Weekly that she had hatched a plan to surprise her new husband Todd Beeby (38) with The Shirelles song Dedicated to the One I Love as a part of her wedding speech.

The actress, who plays Ngaire on the prequel to Outrageous Fortune, enlisted the help of actresses Olivia and Aria to sing the song in a three-part harmony for her 2017 nuptials.

“It was really fun and it had a really good response. There was a standing ovation and everyone loved it,” Esther recalls.