THE LACE MAKER
Byline: Jessica Kerwin
NEW YORK — “I like things that look cutting edge, but also like they could be a hundred years old. And I don’t like froufrou.”
That’s how designer Collette Dinnigan describes her ready-to-wear and lingerie collections, and she’s dead-on. The young Aussie specializes in lace working it into the stuff of dreams — dreams that are hip, sexy and sometimes brash.
Dinnigan’s collection is remarkably diverse, ranging from intimate apparel to exquisite embroidered gowns to skirts and skinny pants paired with jersey tops. And anyone seeing a hint of Galliano or Lang take note, Dinnigan has been designing this way for nine years.
“Not to be conceited,” says the 30-year-old designer, “but at home I’m considered fairly high up in fashion.” Dinnigan owns shops in Sydney and Melbourne, and shows in Paris during the collections. Nevertheless, she is virtually unknown in the United States. The one notable exception is at Barneys New York, where her lingerie has been a hot ticket for three years. (Dinnigan also sells to Joyce in Hong Kong as well as to Harvey Nichols and Liberty in London.)
“Collette’s line is not a commercial line,” says Judy Gilliard, vice president and divisional merchandise manager for lingerie at Barneys. “It has a very directed point of view. It’s very specialized, and the customer knows she’s wearing something unique.”
That said, Dinnigan’s relative anonymity seems about to change. Last week she was in town to explore the U.S. market more broadly and signed up with Seed Inc., which will handle sales here beginning in August. On the store front, Barneys plans to buy the rtw as well as lingerie for resort, and Saks Fifth Avenue and Janet Brown have also bought the collection.
“What a wonderful, wonderful surprise,” says Brown, who bought most of the line and has scheduled a fall trunk show. “I haven’t seen anything new to be this excited about in a long time. Colette’s clothes have the perfect balance — sexy but refined, elegant but young and modern. It’s a dream.”
Saks’ Nicole Fischelis calls the collection “magic.” “Collette has taken something that is the ultimate in femininity — lace — and made it truly versatile,” Fischelis says. “She has translated it for all different purposes — for day, for evening, for lingerie, for play.”
The lingerie retails from about $50 for a panty to $500 for a lace slip, and the rtw, from about $150 for a T-shirt to $1,500 for a long dress. Dinnigan says she has faced little price resistance — from women or from the many men who shop her stores for gifts. “People imagine the men as either very timid and fumbling or else really sleazy,” she says. “But most of them who come into the shop to buy lingerie are really assertive about it. They know exactly what they want and actually know more about underwear than a lot of women do.
“The ready-to-wear is perhaps derivative of the lingerie at times in its femininity and fluidness,” Dinnigan continues, “but when you put the looks together, there’s something hard there as well.”
Upcoming on the designer’s agenda: a swimwear line, possibly next year. As for now, Dinnigan reports, “People are buying the underwear and wearing it to the beach.”