Show Girl: Collette Dinnigan Pulls Out All The Frocks For Powerhouse Museum Extravaganza Exhibit

Collette Dinnigan frocks on display at the Powerhouse Museum's Unlaced exhibit, a retrospective of her work.

“It’s quite old school, walking through here with all the paper patterns. Of course everything is digitized now,” Collette Dinnigan explained to the Minister for Tourism, Trade and Special Events, Stuart Ayres, as she gave him a sneak peek of her retrospective at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum this morning.

For his part, Ayres called Dinnigan “our Queen of Fashion”, and noted everyone – even the least fashion-y of blokes - knows her name.

Celebrity fans don’t hurt. Last night’s Australian Story on the designer featured Dinnigan’s friends Catherine Martin and Sarah Murdoch (who got married in a Collette Dinnigan gown). Until she shuttered her eponymous label last year to focus on her young family, Dinnigan’s beautiful beaded creations were red rug regulars. As seen on? Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, Taylor Swift. Oh, everyone.

COLLETTE DINNIGAN PARIS FASHION WEEK S/S 2014 SHOW

Miranda Kerr in Collette Dinnigan at the AACTA awards. Photo: Getty

Collette Dinnigan: Unlaced opens to the public on Saturday. It’s a big show – with over 100 garments displayed in five interconnected spaces. “When you do a runway show, it’s a moment, then it moves on,” Dinnigan told Marie Claire. “The biggest challenge was bringing that energy to something that’s going to be on for a year. Museums have a tendency to present things chronologically – [but] the historical is not my focus. I’m about emotion. And I wanted people to be not bored!”

But ask her about glamour, and she demurs turning the conversation to wearability- “the shapes flatter every woman, and things like the high neck with the sheer lace” - and the painstaking work that goes on the behind the scenes. Dinnigan was the first Australian to be invited to show on the official Paris fashion week schedule back in 1995, but for all the razzle-dazzle she likes nothing better than to roll up her sleeves and get on with the work.

COLLETTE DINNIGAN SPRING/SUMMER 2010

Look books and swatches on display at the Collette Dinnigan: Unlaced exhibition.

In the early days she dyed her precious silks in a saucepan in her kitchen. Barney’s New York was one of her first big stockists, and over a career spanning 25 years, her creative output has been prodigious. How does she feel to see so much of it showcased in the Powerhouses hallowed halls? “Proud. It’s been a journey. And I’m not bored to look at it!” Job done, then.

Collette Dinnigan: Unlaced, is on show at the Powerhouse Museum from 5 September 2015–28 August 2016.