Brisbane boy Michael Russo a hot favourite in royal dress rumours

FASHION partnership Ralph & Russo are on everyone’s lips thanks to rumours about Meghan Markle’s wedding dress, but not everyone knows Michael Russo is a Nudgee College boy who has carved out a seat on the world stage.

WITH its extravagant, opulent designs, fashion house Ralph & Russo is a force to be reckoned with. In just over a decade, the label has amassed an impressive client base of the world’s most elite, including Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce, sheiks, royalty and billionaires.

Yet despite being mentioned in the same breath as iconic fashion houses Chanel and Versace, the unequivocally successful British couture label hasn’t featured much on the radar Down Under – until now, with the fashionistas among the hot favourites for designing Meghan Markle’s wedding dress.

In fact, most Australians were only made aware of their existence as recently as December, thanks to the official engagement photos of Markle and Prince Harry in which she wore a piece created for her by the designers that was estimated to be worth about $100,000.

It was a bargain for the soon-to-be princess, as the London-made haute couture garments can cost up to $500,000 a pop. Perhaps what is even more startling is to learn that Tamara Ralph, 36, and Michael Russo, 38, hail from Sydney and Brisbane respectively.

Designers Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo at their studio in London, UK. Picture: Stephen Lock/i-Images

The eldest of three children born to Maria and Joe, Russo had an ordinary childhood in the northern Brisbane suburb of Carseldine - a far cry from the two-storey Mayfair atelier he now runs with his partner in love and life, Ralph, overlooking the gardens of Buckingham Palace – a position conveniently located to Markle’s future home.

As a young boy, Russo spent his primary school years at St Flannan’s Catholic Parish School in Zillmere, moving to St Joseph’s Nudgee College for his senior years.

“As a child he was very much a mummy’s boy,” his mother, Maria, tells Insight. “But by the time he got to high school, that’s when he really started to show what he was made of. He was a big cross-country runner at school. It’s a very endurance- based sport to put yourself through, but it was his thing and he loved it. That’s when I saw how determined Michael was. When he put his mind to something, he’d put 100 per cent effort into it.”

A model presents a creation by Ralph & Russo in Paris last year.

After finishing school, Russo enrolled at Griffith University, studying a Bachelor of Internet Computing from 1998 until 2001 while also working for Brisbane City Council.

“This was the first time the degree had been offered in Australia,” says Maria. “Thirty students were selected for the course and only 11 graduated.” Russo, of course, was one of them.

Upon graduation, Russo also left his job. At the ripe age of 21, with a degree under his belt and the world at his feet, he followed his dreams and moved to London.

“When he left, he was just a kid,” Maria says. “It’s funny to look back now and think of how young he was. He had no job prospects, no money, but that was never going to stop him.

“Leaving Brisbane was always going to be the right move for Michael. He felt he had to do more with his life. He’s always been driven by the desire for success. I couldn’t change his mind about staying, even if I wanted to. When he commits to something, he commits.”

But the move abroad wasn’t easy. Maria says her son endured a four-month stint in which he did it “tough, unemployed, and living in a tiny apartment with no bathroom or kitchen”.

“He eventually ran out of money, but he was adamant about not coming home. He hadn’t done what he set out to do. It was his fierce determination that kept him going.”

Eventually his luck turned and he began working as a financial consultant for Deutsche Bank. It was during this time that he met Tamara Ralph, the young seamstress from Sydney.

From the age of 10, under the guidance of her mother and grandmother, Ralph learnt how to sew, and by the time she was 15 she was designing dresses for Sydney’s elite. She was visiting London on a student visa when she literally bumped into Russo on the street.

“Tamara had been in the country for no more than three hours,” Maria says.

“Can you believe it? I mean, that’s fate. You can’t describe it any other way.”

One of the two official engagement photos of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Eventually Ralph’s visa expired and she returned to Australia. However, it didn’t take long for Russo to persuade her to come back.

“He sent her a message and said, ‘I’ve booked you a flight, you have to come back’, and she was on the next plane out,” Maria says.

In 2005, after two years in the financial sector, Russo left Deutsche Bank to begin building a business alongside Ralph in the fashion industry.

“He did really well at (the bank), he learnt a lot, but for Michael, it just wasn’t enough,” Maria says. “He saw potential in Tamara’s talent. He said to her, ‘I’m backing you, let’s do this together’, and I think that’s why they’ve been such a success – they’ve worked at it together.”

To see them now, it’s hard to believe it all started in a one-bedroom apartment with just a sewing machine, but by 2007, Ralph & Russo was becoming an internationally recognised fashion house.

Since then, their rise has been fast and furious. In 2013 they appeared on Fortune magazine’s list of the 40 most successful business people under 40, alongside Mark Zuckerberg, and were the only fashion representatives to feature.

Another creation of Ralph & Russo

A year later, they became the first British house in a century selected by the Chambre Syndicale deemed skilled enough to show their collection on the Paris Couture Week schedule, which, as a spokesperson for the brand says, “continues to enhance our global awareness and remains one of our greatest accolades to date”.

Together, they have turned their small couture atelier into a global powerhouse that has amassed a nine-figure valuation, employs more than 250 staff, and has 1.8 million followers on Instagram.

And although we cannot know for sure whether they have been chosen to create Markle’s wedding dress (their spokesperson declined to comment), one thing is for certain: despite all the fame and fortune, they’re still humbled by their roots.

“Sometimes I have to pinch myself and say, ‘This is my son, he is mine’,” says Maria. “He (and Tamara) mix with the super rich and famous of the world, but they’ll come home and be just Michael and Tamara. To me, he’ll always be our little Brisbane boy.”

Email Astrid Taemets

Michael Russo and Tamara Ralph acknowledge the audience at the end of the 2017 fall/winter Haute Couture collection in Paris last year.