Catherine Martin remembers how, 22 years ago, she would carefully pick diamantes off her Strictly Ballroom costumes to re-use them in later scenes.
The budget of the hit 1992 Australian film had been pared down by nearly half before filming began, and the final $3.3 million allowed for only a limited number of the glittering faux stones.
Martin was then a 27-year-old costume designer, working on her first feature film alongside college mate and debut director Baz Luhrmann.
After each of the elaborately crafted ballroom dancing outfits had completed their scenes, Martin would remove the diamantes and stick them onto costumes yet to take their turn.
It was a far cry from her now-husband Luhrmann's latest film, The Great Gatsby (2013), with its reported $127 million budget.
"It's free rein with the diamantes this time," Martin tells AAP just over a week before the couple's Strictly Ballroom The Musical opens at Sydney Lyric Theatre on April 12.
"And there are never enough diamantes."
After being hidden away in storage for more than 20 years, 40 of the film's original costumes have been dusted off and put on exhibition at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum.
The exhibition includes the vibrant sequinned red dress Fran (Tara Morice) donned for the film's final dance scene, and the gold-beaded matador coat worn by Scott (Paul Mercurio). There are also Martin's design drawings, cast and set photos and rehearsal clips.
Also on display are Martin's four Oscars and four of her five Bafta awards.
In March the 49-year-old won her third and fourth Academy Awards - for best costume design and best production design for The Great Gatsby.
Martin, having previously won two Oscars for Luhrmann's 2001 film Moulin Rouge, has now secured more Oscars than any Australian, surpassing 1950s costume designer Orry George Kelly.
Not that she is too impressed by her achievement.
"In my household today's rooster is tomorrow's feather duster," she says.
"Our children keep us totally grounded - it doesn't matter what your parents achieve or who they are, they're always just `embarrassing'."
Martin and Luhrmann are about to come full circle on a project that dates back decades, well before the birth of their two children.
Strictly Ballroom began life in 1984 as a short musical developed by Luhrmann and other students at Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). It was later developed into a longer version for the Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf Theatre.
Martin was a stage hand then, before debuting as a costume designer on the film.
She concedes she's come a long way - "but also not very far at all".
She adds: "There is a great strength in naivety and tireless work ethic, and a belief that anything is possible. That almost makes you invincible when you're young.
"Coming around to it again, the infectious joy of the production has given me some of that energy back.
"I've forgotten how much I enjoyed theatre."
Strictly Ballroom The Musical is guaranteed to be a spectacle of colour, with all the much-loved (and hated) characters, and even that cheeky pineapple rumba outfit.
Sequins and diamantes will be out in the force.
But Martin has decided there are to be no diamantes on the dancers' shoes. That's because the glitz was falling off during rehearsals and getting stuck on parts of the set.
She had to muster all her resolve to see the decision through: "Because the temptation is unbearably strong to just bedazzle everything."
Martin is aware that the arrival of reality TV shows such as Dancing With The Stars has changed ballroom dancing significantly in the past two decades.
For that reason, the stage show's context remains unique.
"Baz has said that if it's set in any period it's set in the `80s," Martin says.
"But it's really set in the hermetically sealed world of Strictly Ballroom - it's its own entity.
"Within that they've shown federation dancing verses new steps. And that's not necessarily making a comment on the current ballroom scene: you just have to make it clear to the audience that one is old and one is new."
So do she and Luhrmann plan to do more theatre projects?
"Who knows?" she says. "Baz certainly loves the theatre, it's certainly something he's good at.
"It's certainly possible, if not very probable."
* The Strictly Ballroom Story runs 10am-5pm daily at the Powerhouse Museum from April 5 to November 9.
* Strictly Ballroom the Musical opens at the Sydney Lyric Theatre on April 12.
