SYDNEY– Australian designer Aurelio Costarella has died at age 60 after a current analysis with Creutzfeldt-Jakob illness, a uncommon mind dysfunction that additionally claimed the lifetime of his sister Gracie, it was revealed Saturday.
Western Australia’s most profitable designer, Perth-born Costarella made a reputation for himself along with his embellished demi-couture eveningwear that usually featured delicate classic materials.
A stalwart of the Australian Style Week schedule for quite a few years, he took his assortment to New York Style Week in September 2006 and confirmed there for 4 seasons. At his peak he was promoting to Barneys New York, Harvey Nichols, Henri Bendel and Villa Moda, with 100 stockists in Australia, together with the David Jones division retailer chain. His designs have been worn by names together with Queen Mary of Denmark, Cate Blanchett, Charlize Theron, Rihanna, Geri Halliwell and Dita Von Teese.
In 2017, citing the troublesome retail financial system and psychological well being struggles, he shuttered his enterprise to deal with artwork.
Completely self-taught, Costarella first started experimenting with clothes throughout his second yr of architectural research at Perth’s Curtin College, ultimately discovering a stockist in Perth boutique Crème Soda. His success there lead him to ultimately abandon his research and pursue vogue full-time in 1983.
Ultimately investing in, and later buying, Crème Soda, from 1987 he opened a sequence of boutiques, together with his first retailer underneath the identify Ray Costarella in 1991 on Perth’s Bayview Terrace in Claremont and later Sydney’s Strand Arcade.
However in response to Australian Style Week founder Simon Lock, now the chief govt officer of vogue expertise firm The Ordre Group, it was whereas designing a label known as Milk for Adelaide boutique Miss Gladys Sym Choon later that decade that Costarella first got here to his consideration.
“His distinctive standpoint secured him a debut at Style Week in Subsequent Gen [the event’s emerging designer group showcase],” mentioned Lock.
“He then turned his true self as Aurelio Costarella [by adopting his full Christian name Aurelio] and settled into [becoming] a refined couturier. His effectively documented struggles with psychological well being in some senses made his creations much more particular. He was a gentleman, a candy soul and inventive visionary,” he added.
In March 2007, in a bid to lift funds to speed up the enterprise into worldwide markets, Costarella’s firm listed on the Australian Inventory Alternate, debuting at a loss. It was delisted in 2009.
In 2016, he was inducted into the Design Institute of Australia Corridor of Fame and his work is housed within the collections of Australian galleries resembling The Powerhouse Ultimo, the Nationwide Gallery of Victoria and the Western Australian Museum, which staged a 30-year profession retrospective of Costarella’s work in 2013.
Costarella turned an envoy for Lifeline Australia and was an advocate for psychological well being. Within the flood of tributes which can be rolling in on his Instagram web page, he’s additionally being remembered as a beneficiant mentor to younger designers.
“Australia has misplaced a superb creator who touched the lives of so many. Aurelio was Perth’s reward to the world” mentioned Community 10 information anchor Narelda Jacobs. Echoed Sydney vogue publicist Adriana Glass, “We have been so blessed to have Aurelio in our world. An immense loss, an excellent better legacy.”
