Perri Cutten, an Australian designer, has died at the age of 73.
A private cremation is planned for Cutten, who died on April 4, and whose cause of death was not immediately known. A memorial is being planned for a later date.
Cutten started her company in 1981 at a time when women were entering the workforce in greater numbers. She helped to define Australian style with her stylish designs that had a classic sensibility. Although she studied graphic design at Swinburne University, Cutten gravitated toward fashion and clothing and found her livelihood there. Before venturing out on her own, Cutten worked for brands like Geoff Bade and Thomas Wardle.
Once she started her company, Cutten wanted women to be taken seriously in the workforce and created designs that would help them fit in and feel feminine, but not look silly. After unveiling her first stand-alone store in 1982, Cutten reportedly had 32 boutiques throughout Australia by 2011. In addition to her signature stores, Perri Cutten clothing was sold to Australian retailers like Myer and David Jones. By her own assessment, her label’s design ethos amounted to “Good fabric, good taste, and always flattering.”
Cutten’s company won four awards from the Fashion Industries of Australia, as well as the coveted Woolmark Prize in 1991, and she earned an honorary doctorate from her alma mater Swinburne University in 1998.
Being disciplined was also a pillar to her business and staying focused on her core customers, preferring not to chase the trends for editorial coverage. “It’s easy to make something fabulous that only 10 people can buy. But when you’re virtually reengineering an idea that women love, to make them love it again, that’s hard,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2011.
Like many apparel companies, Cutten weathered the ebbs and flows of business, striving to have “a little increase every year — not a great big one — and certainly not a dip, so that’s how it’s been,” she told the Herald. “When times do get tough and you’ve been there a while, and people trust what you do, and maybe your competition is diminishing, there is no reason why you can’t do well.
In 2021, her company was acquired by the Austin Group, which also owns Cable Melbourne and the Gazman brands. In the past few years, the Austin Group invested in Perri Cutten stores to create a more contemporary outlook and to update the interior decor in locales like Sydney, Manuka and Brighton.
The Australian Financial Review’s fashion editor Lauren Sams said Monday that Cutten was “a true original,” who started out at a time, when department stores were copying designs from European collections. Sams told WWD, “When she started designing, Australian fashion was very much in its infancy. Now, we have a robust fashion industry and a clearly identified sense of style. For Perri to stamp out her own style was brave and trailblazing.”
A spokesperson for the brand Perri Cutten on Monday described the late designer as “an iconic figure in Australian fashion whose name has become synonymous with timeless elegance and sophistication. As the founder of the Perri Cutten brand, she built a legacy that has endured for decades, dressing generations of Australian women with style, grace and confidence.”
A model wears a design from the Perri Cutten collection during the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival in Melbourne in 2003.
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The Perri Cutten spokesperson said her contribution to the fashion industry was “not only visionary but also deeply personal. She understood the modern Australian woman and designed with purpose, integrity and grace. May she be remembered for her pioneering spirit, her impeccable eye, and the enduring mark she left on Australian fashion.”
The designer’s philanthropic pursuits included Foundation 59, an organization that supports disadvantaged young people, and a women’s fundraising group for the National Gallery of Victoria.
Cutten is survived by her siblings Bill and Sue, her children Kate and Gaby, her stepchildren Lily and Coco and her partner Jo Daniell, a photographer.
