news

• The West Australian
• Journalist Cy Clayton
• Tuesday February 7, 2017

A year spent living in Italy and a lifelong love affair with antique textiles have helped inspire the stunning new collaboration between Collette Dinnigan and Melbourne-based homewares label Linen House.
The designer says her first foray into bed linen was something of a natural progression from her celebrated career as an icon of Australian fashion.
“For many years a lot of my customers have been asking me to do interiors and homewares and I think it’s a kind of a natural progression because I’ve got such an affinity with textiles and especially the different finishes and embellishments such as embroideries and things, that it kind of goes hand-in-hand,” she says from New South Wales, where she was en route from Sydney to her new home in the southern highlands after returning from Rome late last year.

Dinnigan says the three designs she created for Linen House — which she describes as “both feminine and crisp, with a hint of bohemian style” — reflect her passion for antique and French fabrics, and her extensive travels throughout Europe.
“I love bed linen and collecting old textiles,” she says. “I got some fantastic pieces while I was away.
“The different areas and the different regions have different embroidery techniques, so I drew a lot of inspiration from that.”
The collection features azure-blue floral and European folk-style accents across finely embroidered white 300-thread count cotton percale quilt covers, sheet sets, and pillowcases, as well as luxury bath towels.

Dinnigan, who in 2013 announced the closure of the main part of her fashion business, says she hopes the collection will appeal to lovers of her famed aesthetic, as well as those people simply seeking luxurious, modern bedding.
“I hope the customers who liked my product before in fashion will like it too, because it has asimilar aesthetic,” she says. “It’s still contemporary and very elegant, with a refined European quality to it.

“I think it also will appeal to a lot of other customers (that is, men) who don’t usually buy my clothes.

“ Especially with the pale blue borders; it’s not necessarily masculine but it can be either-or.
“It doesn’t mean the room has to be pretty and feminine, it’s simply very contemporary and fresh.”
The Collette Dinnigan for Linen House collection will be available later this month. Visit linenhouse.com.au.

Collette Dinnigan’s bedroom styling tips

• Four pillows is better than two on a bed … and I think also using European pillowcases is an opportunity to make a bit more of a statement.
• I think the top sheet should always be pulled back quite low because that’s where the decoration is.
• It’s also very nice to have the bed centred and have bedside tables on either side with lamps. Having space on either side of the bed makes the bed that much more focused and central.
• I also think it’s probably the one room in the house that can be slightly more feminine than any of the other rooms because, usually from experience, it’s the female that styles the bedroom more than the men — so it doesn’t necessarily have to be pink and white but a bit of floral embroidery is definitely acceptable.