Dilettante 4.08

Located in the shopping precinct of Claremont, Western Australia, Dilettante is a multi-designer boutique housing the latest in luxury fashion from across the globe. Dilettante offers customers an attentive and considered in-store shopping experience nestled within the moonscape rendered walls of the recently renovated boutique. International and national customers are also catered for with an extensive range of clothing, accessories, shoes, and fine jewellery from luxury fashion designers such as Rick Owens, Issey Miyake, and Ann Demeulemeester available in the online retail space.

Dilettante first opened its doors in 2007 in the luxury King Street shopping district of Perth, Western Australia. Nestled within a heritage building, the boutique featured exposed brick walls, soft lighting, antique furniture and taxidermy, and a wall entirely covered in ivy. Diana Paolucci, Dilettante’s owner and director, wanted the space to reflect the Parisian interiors she had fallen in love with during her early buying trips to Paris. The brands also reflected this sense of old world charm, as sequinned red-carpet gowns by British fashion house Vivienne Westwood hung beside French couture labels such as Anne Valerie Hash. However, the boutique was perhaps most revered for its selection of European and Japanese avant-garde designers such as Ann Demeulemeester, Yohji Yamamoto, Undercover and Issey Miyake.

In 2013, Dilettante opened its second boutique in the leafy shopping precinct of Claremont, located Western suburbs of Perth. Signalling a new chapter for Dilettante, the Perth flagship store closed its doors in 2015 and the Claremont boutique underwent extensive renovations. The new look Dilettante welcomed clients by providing a unique physical experience, that was at once minimal, textural, and experimental. Artist Georgia Kaw worked closely with the interior architect Jen Lowe, from Ohlo Studio, to produce a series of compressed polystyrene functional objects that would complement the moonscape rendered walls, polished concrete floors, and plush burgundy carpets.

The transition was also reflected in the brand line-up, as more accessible and contemporary fashion houses such as Acne Studios, Pleats Please by Issey Miyake, and Nehera have taken the place of some of the more conceptual and less wearable brands. Australian luxury fashion designers Song For The Mute and now London-based Yang Li continue to reflect the avant-garde aesthetic of other long-time Dilettante favourites such as Ann Demeulemeester and Rick Owens. Fine jewellery by Lebanese designer Rosa Maria, which has adorned the hands of Dilettante’s clients for many years, is beautifully showcased in the brighter and more inviting space which mirrors the raw and organic appearance of the jewellery.