Little Red · Collette Dinnigan Young Hearts Dress, 2010s, AU 4
Printed cotton · hand-smocked bodice · ruffle hem · Collette Dinnigan Young Hearts · Aldi 2015 to 2016 · AU size 4, approx 4 years
Red scrolling all over white, a print that reads like a block stamp, pulled tight across a hand-smocked bodice and then let loose into a deep gathered ruffle hem. The smocking is worked in navy running stitch across the front yoke, giving it weight and contrast that lifts the whole piece.
Collette Dinnigan Young Hearts, the couture designer's brief children's collaboration with Aldi in 2015 and 2016. Dinnigan had built one of Australia's most internationally celebrated fashion houses on exquisite handwork and romantic construction, and even in a supermarket collaboration, the eye for detail held. A real designer's hand at a price point that let you actually buy it, which is why these pieces are collected now. A lined body, a back zip, a hem that swings when you move.
Care
Wash cool on its own the first few times so the red does not run into the white. Dry flat in the shade. Press on the reverse with a cool iron.
More on looking after vintage pieces in our care guide.
Size
Measured flat: length 58cm, chest 34cm, waist 47cm, skirt width at hem 65cm. Fits approximately AU size 4, around 4 years.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Exhibition condition. The smocking is crisp, the ruffle hem full and even, the print vibrant throughout.
Our condition lexicon explains the grades we use.
Before it reaches you
Someone loved this before you did, and I try to honour that properly. Each piece is hand washed, or cleaned in the way that the fabric permits, then steamed until it softens and straightens and feels newly attended to. Wherever a button was missing, it has been replaced with a vintage one from my long-kept collection. Wherever a hem had given way, I fix it by hand. By the time it leaves this room it is genuinely clean, pressed, whole, and looked over one final time before I let myself believe it is ready. Not restored. Not made new. Just returned to a state where it can be loved again, by someone who was not there the first time.
Red scrolls across the white like a block stamp pressed again and again, and a print repeated that faithfully begins, after a while, to look like handwriting nobody has troubled to translate. The navy smocking holds the whole message pulled tight at the yoke, so none of it escapes before the wearer is ready to let it. This was couture handwork that briefly and generously turned up in a supermarket, the sort of thing that happens once and becomes a story told afterward. The hem swings, the print keeps writing, and no one has finished reading it yet.