By Paula Joye
Paris Fashion Week proved to be the deal breaker. When Collette Dinnigan returned from the hectic business trip, she felt her 11-month-old son Hunter did not recognise his mother.
On Tuesday, the fashion designer announced that she was closing the doors on her eponymous label to spend time with Hunter and Estella, 9.
A closer bond: Collette Dinnigan and son Hunter after his birth.Credit: Hugh Stewart
"I wasn't doing my job or motherhood properly,'' she told Fairfax Media. ''I like to do things at full-mast and I wasn't prepared to be a mother at half-mast any more.
"It was an extremely intimate and genuine decision. I believe children need routines, consistency and assurance. These things don't come from a textbook. They come from your gut, your heart and instinct. I need to be around much more to teach them these things."
Dinnigan, who married businessman Bradley Cocks in 2011, said her late mother was on her mind. "My mother's love was unconditional. She worked but I never once felt anything was more important to her than my brother and I. Or that she wasn't around for us. It felt hypocritical to be working at my pace and expecting the same outcome with my own kids.''
But after 24 years in the business, she is not expecting the transition to be completely smooth. "I'm used to 14-hour work days and relentless travel, so finding moderation will not be easy,'' she said.
"I don't have anything to prove any more. If you're good at something you will always be able to get back in to it. Women should be confident in their ability to reinvent.''
The queue outside Dinnigan's flagship Sydney store snaked down the street on Wednesday as fans jostled to buy a piece of Australian fashion history. The brand's website sold out of stock within 48 hours of the closure announcement - with one overseas customer ordering everything available in her size.
The company will shut boutiques in Sydney, Melbourne and London next month. Industry rumours suggest the designer's next move will be in homewares but Dinnigan maintains there are no immediate plans for anything other than a break.
"I want to finish work, look after my staff and then sit on the beach for the entire school holidays. That means I need to keep away from pretty fabric and avoid going to friends' houses that need fixing up.
''At least for a while.''