COVETING CATINI

Sophisticated, elegant and sculptural, Catherine Mancini’s debut collection, Precipice, highlights the emerging designer’s incredible design and construction abilities. Inspired by architectural shapes and forms, Precipice pushes the boundaries of contemporary fashion with bold shapes and strong silhouettes that aren’t for the weak of heart.
Premiered at this year’s Perth Fashion Festival, Precipice marks the beginning of what promises to be an exciting career for Mancini, who graduated from Central Institute back in 2009.
“It’s been insane, absolutely crazy,” Mancini reflects on the past year. “Before Perth Fashion Festival my life was a bit more cruisey because I didn’t really know the business side of things – I just started working on a collection and that was easy – but after PFF I realised how many things I didn’t know and still had to do. It was good to be thrown in the deep end, otherwise I’d still be cruising along.”
After getting her first taste for design at a very young age, it was clear to Mancini long ago that she was destined to become a designer.
“When I was about six or seven I would always play with my Barbie dolls and dress them up – I’d constantly change their outfits and hand sew little clothes for them because I didn’t have a sewing machine. It wasn’t until year 9 or 10 that I started using a sewing machine, and that’s when I decided to leave high school and go straight to TAFE. I was 15 when I started TAFE – I thought ‘why wait?’.”
Determined to create fashion forward designs that won’t date, Mancini is obsessed with quality – after all, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right!
“Quality is an important thing for me. I’m a perfectionist so things have to be right, which can be good sometimes but can also make things hard. The pattern making usually takes me quite a while to perfect the shape, silhouette and fit.
“I want people to be able to wear Catini Designs and express themselves and be different. I always try to push my designs to be structural, something you wouldn’t see out in the fashion industry right now.”
Find out more about Catini designs by visiting.catinidesigns.com.au.