Dress circle: Leona Edmiston celebrates a decade of frocks

Congratulations to Leona Edmiston and Jeremy Ducker on the 10th anniversary of their fashion label. The occasion was celebrated yesterday at a small lunch in the Boathouse restaurant, which is located directly above Sydney University’s Women’s Rowing Club boatshed on Glebe's Blackwattle Bay. It was also an opportunity to unveil Edmiston’s Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection, 12 very pretty dresses from which were modelled by Tania Pozzebom, Caris Tiivel and Tiah Eckhardt [L to R, above]. Australia’s answer to Diane von Furstenberg, Edmiston’s hero product is the dress. In fact, that's all she makes. “By focussing on the one thing, we’ve been able to remain independent and grow at our own pace” Edmiston told her lunch guests. 

The business is the third and most successful incarnation of Edmiston’s fashion career, after she co-founded the influential Morrissey Edmiston label with Peter Morrissey in 1983 and then went solo with her own eponymous line in 1998. 

After an acrimonious split with her former business and life partner Peter Hutchison in 1999, the latter business would prove shortlived.

Third time lucky, however, for Edmiston. In 2001, together with new husband and business partner Ducker, she launched what has since blossomed into a highly successful business that boasts 26 boutiques, including six Myer concessions and standalone stores in Los Angeles, London and Shanghai.

Five new boutiques are due to open this year, with yet more brand extensions soon to be added to an already impressive arsenal of Leona Edmiston licenses, from jewellery to fragrance, shoes, handbags, hosiery, eyewear and childrenswear. 

Here's to the next ten years.

Click (here) to see frockwriter's Posterous backstage pic gallery.