C.DESIGN's first runway show was held at the Subiaco Hotel in Perth (also known as The Subi), in 1994. It exuded everything fashion shows should be, and what we’re all reaching for today; soul, effortless glamour, and the understated attitude that Australians feel at home with.
The original founder of C.DESIGN, and one of our five directors today, Claire, was encouraged by her mentors to expand her designs into a new realm. She did so with conviction by hand-sewing and finishing each piece in the runway collection, citing long nights in a new studio space using a converted pool table as their first cutting table and working on a domestic sewing machine.
Claire recalls the event as a family affair with her sister Erin walking alongside close friends in the show, as well as her grandmother sitting amongst the audience - the mentor who taught Claire to sew only years prior.
While fashion invitations today only seem to grow in grandeur and excessiveness, our approach to showcasing our first designs had a pared back approach. In a very Australian manner, we asked our friends and family to ‘come and have a drink with us’. It was the time and place for experimental design with snake-skin prints, cut-outs, high-shine metallics and sheer fabrics against a backdrop of a bubble machine and the eager guests watching on through the event space windows.
It was after all, the early nineties and the beginning of a long road for C.DESIGN, defined by friendships still maintained today.
