How Collette Dinnigan is bringing Italy to Australian homes

Fashion designer turned homeware entrepreneur Collette Dinnigan is embracing a new career that’s connecting her to the importance of life at home.  

After decades at David Jones in her previous fashion life, she is making her Myer debut with a candle collection that takes us on a journey to Italy from the comfort of our homes.  

Candles have long been on Dinnigan’s radar – she once collaborated with the creative duo behind Goutal fragrances, Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyene – and now she’s exploring that scented trip once again. 

“The candles were a little something extra you could get in the shop, and when we shut the shops, everyone used to say to me, ‘I wish you would do your candles again,’” Dinnigan says.

She was approached by Myer to be an official stockist after the department store’s general manager purchased directly from her Instagram account. 

“I thought, ‘Why not? Myer is doing well in beauty, candles and home and I have always trusted my instinct in business so I’m going with that,’” Dinnigan says. 

It’s the beginning of a working relationship that will see Dinnigan move into diffusers, home scents and body washes. 

Titled Incenso del Sud, Aventino di Roma, Fiori Di Bosco and Limoncello di Sicilia, all the candles are hand-poured and -made in Australia with organic wicks.   

The scents are inspired by Dinnigan’s time spent in Italy – think of the orange zest in the air of Capri, the incense burning in the churches she visited in Puglia, the woody lemons that remind her of summer nights in Italy, or the jasmine and orange blossom that surrounded her in the Seven Hills of Rome . 

“Scent is about memories and it’s a perfect way to take your mind elsewhere,” she says.

When it comes to working out the notes that work best for her new home fragrance collection, Dinnigan is using her kitchen instinct – after all, she took third place in Celebrity MasterChef Australia last year.

“None of my home scents will be sweet,” she says. “I don’t like eating sweet food and that palette preference definitely translates to my fragrance world too – you won’t find me using banana, apples and watermelon. 

“I like the complexity of scent, so what might not be obvious to some is what I like. I love working with that forest-floor smell of moss, patchouli, bergamot and cedar.”

Dinnigan is enjoying her time back in Australia even though she has homes in Puglia and Rome. 

“We would love to go back to Italy, but Australia is the place for us right now with our kids settled in school,” she says. 

“Next year we’ll reassess things and go for a holiday, but I am busy developing new products so it’s not just about the time we had in Italy, it’s about the time we are having in Australia too. 

“I feel reinvigorated to get into this side of the business and do more.”