By Hannah Kennelly
Melbourne fashion designer Perri Cutten has died at the age of 73.
Cutten founded her eponymous brand in 1981 and quickly became one of Australia’s best-known designers, renowned for her signature suiting and tailored outerwear.
Fashion designer Perri Cutten.Credit: Fairfax Media
A death notice posted on Saturday said Cutten had died peacefully, surrounded by family, on Friday.
In a post on Instagram, the Perri Cutten fashion house described its founder as an “iconic figure in Australian fashion” whose name became “synonymous with timeless elegance and sophistication”.
Cutten with her Woolmark Award for Excellence in 1991.
“As the founder of the Perri Cutten brand, she built a legacy that has endured for decades, dressing generations of Australian women with style, grace and confidence,” the post said.
“Her contribution to the fashion industry was not only visionary but also deeply personal – she understood the modern Australian woman and designed with purpose, integrity, and grace.
“May she be remembered for her pioneering spirit, her impeccable eye, and the enduring mark she left on Australian fashion.”
In its first decade, the brand won awards including four from the Fashion Industries of Australia and a coveted Woolmark award for excellence.
Presenter and model Marianne Van Dorslar paid tribute to Cutten’s legacy and her brand’s Victorian roots in an Instagram post on Sunday.
“She created her brand of timeless elegance, beautiful quality women’s garments back in 1981, and it continues today,” Van Dorslar wrote.
“Victorian-born label that was sold a few years ago, but prior to that was largely made in Melbourne and designed here.
“I worked with her lovely team for many years as the fit model for the label.
“When Carla Zampatti died we all rightly heard about it, but now a Melbourne icon has passed, barely a peep. I didn’t know Perri, but pass my condolences to her family.”
In 1998, Cutten received an honorary doctorate from Swinburne University’s Faculty of Design.
She was an active philanthropist with connections to Foundation 59, which runs programs for disadvantaged young people, and a National Gallery of Victoria women’s fundraising group.
Cutten’s designs can be found in many locations around Australia, including David Jones and Myer.
She and her long-term partner, photographer Jo Daniell, lived on the Mornington Peninsula.
In an interview with this masthead in 2011, Cutten reflected on her label’s launch and success, highlighting her deliberate decision to target a growing demographic – employed professional women.
“Women had just become part of the workforce in a much bigger way than they’d been,” Cutten said. “They’d been mostly nurses and teachers, but now they were going into corporate jobs.”
Cutten at the Hilton Hotel in October 1993.Credit: Adam Smith
When Cutten started, middle-market womenswear offered little that could serve as “feminine corporate wear”. Her first collections evolved with “logic driven by need” and immediately clicked with the market.
“So that’s what we did; designs that would help [women] fit in and feel feminine but not look silly,” Cutten said.
Designer Penelope Loorham joined Perri Cutten in 1998 and took creative charge of the collection in the early 2000s. She left the business in December 2024.
The death notice said a private cremation and memorial would be announced in due course.
With Roy Ward
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