Collette Dinnigan’s next big project

When designer Collette Dinnigan wrapped up her iconic fashion line at the peak of its success in 2013, it was the end of an era. But after being pulled away to Italy, Dinnigan reveals she is back home and designing again with an exciting - and accessible - new collection.

Collette Dinnigan inside her Bowral studio. Picture: Hugh Stewart for Stellar

While creativity, talent and dreams fuelled the rise of designer Collette Dinnigan and put her squarely atop the fashion industry, those same forces led her overseas to Italy, where she shifted her creative focus. Now, inspired by the fabrics of India and the pull of home, Dinnigan is back in Australia creating clothes for a younger generation in a new collaboration with Cotton On. Inviting Stellar inside her NSW Southern Highlands studio, she reveals how she fell in love with textiles all over again and why, despite appearances, she likes to live her life “fast and furious”

There’s a wisteria-wrapped cottage on Collette Dinnigan’s country property that holds mementos of her previous life: swatches of fabric in jewel colours of bright pink (her favourite hue) and mustard yellow; reams of vivid ribbons; storyboards and sketches of dresses dreamt of but never realised.

This treasure trove, an archive of Dinnigan’s eponymous high-end ’90s fashion label, has been languishing in her purpose-built studio – her “creative sanctuary” – at her home in Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands, which she shares with her husband, Bradley Cocks, the couple’s son Hunter, 10, and Dinnigan’s daughter, Estella, 19, who she shares with her ex-partner, TV presenter Richard Wilkins.

When Dinnigan wrapped up her iconic fashion line at the peak of its success in 2013, it was the end of an era. Her coveted ethereal lace gowns were relegated to museum pieces as she abruptly closed her stores in Australia and London to devote more time to her young family.

It’s not that Dinnigan was done with the vocation that made her a household name (in 1995, she became the first Australian designer to show a ready-to-wear collection at Paris Fashion Week; and her high-end label was the first in Australia to earn sustainability accreditation). Her mind was simply elsewhere. It was filled with dreams of Italy, where she and her family eventually moved in 2019, after buying an 18th century apartment in Rome and a 500-year-old farmhouse in Puglia, both renovated in her signature style.

“I was in love with textiles again and colour,” Dinnigan tells Stellar. “I thought that was another chapter in my past life, but it’s absolutely back in the forefront of my mind. I just loved every bit of it.” Picture: Hugh Stewart for Stellar

Recently, she has felt the pull of – and gravitated back to – her studio at her Australian home. She has lifted the lid on her bounty of fabric swatches, and in the process re-opened a vein of creativity. “I was in love with textiles again and colour,” Dinnigan tells Stellar. “I thought that was another chapter in my past life, but it’s absolutely back in the forefront of my mind. I just loved every bit of it.”

And so Dinnigan, 58, has been designing again, including new work for a range with Cotton On that includes pieces for kids aged two to 10 as well as limited-edition pieces for adults. She’s been hands-on all the way, designing the fabric, adding beading to the samples and, to her delight, reigniting her love for the creative side of her industry without having to deal with the demands and pressures of running a business.

“I don’t want to spend all my time managing people and making sure bills are paid,” Dinnigan explains. “For me it starts with colour and design, passion and print.

I love textiles and shapes and proportions. And I like going on a sort of magical mystery tour for children.”

The Cotton On collaboration also rekindled Dinnigan’s romance with India, which took root during the heyday of her label. Rajasthan was like a second home from which she sourced fabrics and inspiration for her archetypal creations. Her recent return to India, she says, brought a surge of renewed energy.

Read the full interview inside this weekend’s edition of Stellar with Sophie Monk on the cover.

“India has been such a huge inspiration for me because the dyes are at your fingertips and the block printing is there. I love going to the sequin markets, the thread markets, the fabric markets. The colours are so inspirational.”

This thirst for beauty drives Dinnigan, and it binds an entrepreneurial spirit that isn’t fuelled by commercial success but by bringing dreams to life. She attributes this to her mother, Sheila, who died suddenly of a heart attack when Dinnigan was 24. Sheila instilled in Dinnigan and her brother, Seamus, an innate desire to dream big and live fully.

“She always said, ‘You can try and if something goes wrong, you’ve always got a home to come back to,’” Dinnigan recalls, adding that she takes the same approach with her children. “I give them the confidence to spread their wings, but there’s always a place to come home to. That’s what I said about moving to Italy. When my husband was questioning me I was like, ‘What’s the worst that can happen? It doesn’t work out and we come back to Australia.’ In the end, what mattered is that we would have tried a different life.”

Collette Dinnigan has collaborated with Cotton On Kids for a new collection.

And that different life worked out well – for a time. The family’s Italian residency would end up being thwarted by Covid, but not before Dinnigan – because she can’t help herself – created a line of homewares inspired by the local artisans that captured the essence of food and family synonymous with that part of the world. Since the family returned to Australia in 2020, she’s been back to Italy several times, including a memorable few weeks with Jock Zonfrillo and his family; the MasterChef Australia judge, who passed away in April, was a treasured friend from Dinnigan’s stint as a celebrity contestant on the show in 2021 and the pair had bonded over their shared passion for his paternal homeland.

But for now, Dinnigan is happily ensconced at the property in Bowral, which boasts roaming chickens and a garden overflowing with produce. It’s part of her burgeoning property portfolio, which also includes a lovingly restored barn down the road and a beach house perched on the cliffs of Rosedale on the NSW South Coast – both available for the public to rent. Her touch is everywhere in these bespoke homes, from the antique light fittings collected during her time in Italy to the handwritten notes for guests.

It’s this attention to detail that’s made her a household name and has sustained her creative vision across fashion, food, homes, homewares, even a children’s book – and perhaps someday, an eventual return to her roots in couture, if she can find the time.

“My DNA is hard work,” she explains. “There are no shortcuts to anything. I love the creative process and the realisation of an idea. Sometimes I probably take on too much because I’m not this slow-and-steady-wins-the-race kind of person. I always live fast and furious.” Or, as she wryly puts it, “Let’s do something before I forget about it.”

The Cotton On Kids X Collette Dinnigan collection will be available from 28 October at cottonon.com and in select Cotton On Kids stores across Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Originally published as Collette Dinnigan’s next big project