Life went one better than art on Saturday when six Sydney women – who were not bridesmaids - arrived at a wedding reception all accidentally wearing the same A$160 (£95) dress.

Mirroring the 1993 Alan Ball play, Five Women Wearing The Same Dress, after some initial confusion the six women – whose group photos have prompted amused horror from women around the world - eventually bonded, before dancing the night away.

"Imagine the odds," Debbie Speranza, one of the six women, wrote on a Facebook post on fashion brand Forever New's Facebook page. That photo has since received 39,000 likes over 9,500 comments.

Ms Speranza set the scene for the Telegraph two days later: "My cousin and I walked into the reception and saw each other [in the same dress] and started laughing, but then another walked in … then another one … and another one. There was about 200 people.”