As familiar yet simultaneously fresh designs appeared on the catwalk for the last day of Paris Fashion Week, we realised that the beauty of owning a Collette Dinnigan piece is that whilst it might set you back your entire month’s salary, you are pretty much guaranteed to treasure it for many years to come.
Each season, this designer sticks to a similar theme; femininity combined with luxurious fabrics. Because of this, buying pieces from each new season is like adding to a carefully thought out collection. There are the regular and similar ingredients; delicately beaded tops and cocktail dresses, ultra glam red carpet and bridal numbers and a mix and match range of sheer tops combined with sequined micro minis, alternating with sequined tops combined with sheer and often ruffled miniskirts or shorts in a combination of blacks, nudes and metallics.
This season’s offering in predominantly black followed theme and did not disappoint. The standout cocktail dress however – the one that we at RESCU want to get our manicured fingers on before it hits the glossy pages of monthly mags and the long stretches of red carpets – was a bedazzling aqua marine knee-length beaded number that is as perfect for movie stars as it is for mermaids.
Each season, along with the classic Dinnigan shapes, there is usually a fresh and modern twist. One year, it may be Indian themed embroidered drawstring silk pants, the next it can turn to Australiana printed shorts, dresses and bikinis. This season, it followed the international trends of a relaxed and flowing take on the seventies, seen here in the form of harem pants, brightly coloured and printed ruffled, tiered and off-the-shoulder maxi dresses, as perfect to wear to a New Years beach party in Byron Bay as they are to watch the sun set over Uluru.
There were also plenty of free-flowing red carpet gowns that could happily be worn by glamorous yummy mummies-to-be. How appropriate considering Dinnigan’s friend and muse, Sarah Murdoch, just announced she is pregnant.
