Collette Dinnigan to fold mainline label

Collette Dinnigan is leaving the fashion business and will close her mainline business. The Australian designer who's dresses have been very successful in the UK, is expected to fold her main label after a final production of limited-editions pieces,

whilst her secondary label Collette will continue to be available at department stores.

Dinnigan is a fashion industry veteran and started her label 26 years ago in the early 90s. She has dressed celebrities including the Duchess of Cambridge and Angelina Jolie.

Dinnigan, who specialises in lace slips, lingerie and dresses, will shut her boutiques in Sydney, Melbourne and London by the end of the year to devote more time to her children.

"It's been a very emotional day but I am still very busy for the next six weeks," Dinnigan told the guardian.com. "There will be the last hurrah of limited-edition pieces."

"When I first started fashion was considered too fluffy for newspapers," noted the designer. "But I've had many newspaper covers and shown that fashion is a commodity and a viable business."

Dinnigan was first Australian to show at Paris Fashion Week

Dinnigan is the only Antipodean to ever be officially invited by the Chambre Syndicale to show at Paris Fashion Week, where she first showed in 1995 having launched her label at the beginning of the decade with a collection of dry-clean lingerie.

"My proudest moment was doing my first show in Paris and maintaining that for 18 years, doing 36 shows," Dinnigan told the paper.

Dinnigan’s business is set to make 14 million Aus dollars for 2014, so this was not a financial decision but rather an emotional and family one that she made after her last Paris show, she told the paper.

"It's sad but other things always happen, and I am so excited to get to spend time with my children as they are growing up. The whole decision was based on that," the designer explained. "I will spend Christmas and summer with my family at our farm and I am so excited as I haven't done that before. Usually it's been fleeting and I've had to work."

Dinnigan's boutiques will close in early January. Her diffusion line will remain, along with her childrenswear collection which is relaunching at David Jones next month.

She has also hinted that she is open to future designing collaboration opportunities. "It's a chapter closed but you know me, I can't stay away," she was quoted as saying.

Image: Collette Dinnigan