The wallpaper ‘rule’ Collette Dinnigan wants every home renovator to break

From being the first Australian designer to show at Paris Fashion Week in 1996 to living a quieter life in the NSW Southern Highlands she calls home, Collette Dinnigan might have swapped the fast pace of fashion to focus on interiors and homewares, but that hasn’t slowed her down.

Her pivot from fashion hemlines to interiors has been seamless. When Dinnigan isn’t decorating and renovating her properties in Australia and Italy, she’s curating the namesake homewares collection she launched in 2021, travelling to Italy each year to add to the range. “I still work with Italian artisans for ceramics and napery, and it all interplays with my love of home and entertaining,” she says.

She has also introduced candles into the range, her passion for Italy captured in four candle scents inspired by the country (Dinnigan and her husband, property developer Bradley Cocks, own a house in Puglia called Casa Olivetta).

Collette Dinnigan at her home in Puglia, Italy.

For Dinnigan, there’s no better way to celebrate a beloved destination than by having a candle fragrance evoke it. “The candles and home fragrances are a nod to my love of Italy,” she says. “It’s a nice way to embrace that love, and it gives me a lot of joy in my own home.”

She has also just introduced diffusers in new scents for Christmas, while hand washes and room spray also tap into her favourite Italian scents.

Beyond her homewares range, Dinnigan has collaborated for several years with the Australian Museum of Design (AMD) on a made-to-order wallpaper collection. It’s a chance for Dinnigan to take her sophisticated narrative to another medium and bring her elegant touch to the home, with the bespoke aspect of the service particularly appealing.

A big space should be light, whereas a small room is where I like to find wallpaper.

Collette Dinnigan, designer

Teaming with the AMD made sense for Dinnigan, who carefully considers her partnerships. The museum has released patterns by many prominent artists, including Florence Broadhurst, Margaret Clarke and Chris Stone, and more recently collaborated with singer Kate Ceberano, who has turned her hand to textile design.

Dinnigan’s wallpapers are big on classic navy with gold stripes (think Napoleonic) but there is also a bright pink paisley pattern on a pale pink background that conjures an exotic mood. “My approach to wallpaper design is all about being elegant and classic,” she says. “The wallpaper feels very European – I went for a sophisticated, bohemian feel.”

When it comes to accenting a home with wallpaper, Dinnigan has firm views. “A lot of people think that if a room is tiny, they need to make it light and bright. But I always say a big space should be light, whereas a small room is where I like to find wallpaper. Small rooms create that more intimate feel when you add wallpaper.”

Just in case these projects aren’t keeping Dinnigan busy enough, in August she redesigned all the hotel staff uniforms for the Park Hyatt Sydney, from front-of-house to the dining areas. Aiming for a more elegant and elevated aesthetic, Dinnigan has brought stripes, washes of navy and breezy pussy-bow blouses to the mix, purposefully tapping into the old-world elegance of English hotels.

Dinnigan (centre) with models in Paris at her fashion week show in October 2007.Credit: Getty Images

“You’ll see a classic element to what I have designed – these garments are elegantly modern, with a contemporary undercurrent,” she says. “For me, it was about keeping it classic, elegant and timeless – and finding a balance between them all.”

The collection for the Park Hyatt has another inspiration – Sydney Harbour. Dinnigan says she was inspired by the Sydney Opera House’s seashell sails and the waterfront, which inspired the “wave” print reflected throughout the collection. (Others working on the hotel’s revamp include Dinosaur Designs’ Louise Olsen.)

The project has been three years in the making, and Dinnigan says she wanted to tap into Australia as a relaxed destination, then juxtapose that laid-back charm with a sense of now. “The uniforms are also meant to be a bit of fun. Sydney as a city isn’t as serious as capitals like London, so I didn’t want the uniforms to feel stuffy – this is Dinnigan with a twist.

“It’s been years of conversations to come up with a collection that will look good in many years’ time. The capsule had to be contemporary, and I stuck to clothing styles that make everyone who wears them feel confident. There’s a breezy ease to it.”

Dinnigan is also working on a new book about her birth country, South Africa (she was raised in New Zealand before arriving in Australia in 1985). This follows on from her 2024 book, Bellissima: An Australian Italian Affair, which took readers into her world of interiors, gardens and the kitchen.

Between projects, the 60-year-old has kept herself busy over the past three years renovating her country property. The 1920s cottage, in the NSW Southern Highlands town of Robertson, features recycled floorboards while its position on the escarpment gives it a forest-to-coastline view. Her shed is filled with wood from recycled cheese boards and vintage doors from Argentina.

Dinnigan loves to scavenge her way around France and Italy, finding vintage pieces she brings back to life in Australia. “I put a lot of passion into any project I take on,” she says. “Whether it’s styling and renovating a home, working on a fashion collaboration or working on my own homewares, I get great joy from seeing things come together. It’s a labour of love, and I do really like to keep busy.”

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