Seven weeks after the surprise announcement she was shutting up shop, Collette Dinnigan is still looking for that elusive holiday and time to plan her new life.
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''I haven't made any decision about the future yet - the opportunities, I've said I'll look at them in February and March,'' Dinnigan said. ''I want to spend my time away from everything first - I want some time with my family.''
In a visit to Canberra on Wednesday, the designer shared some of the key moments in her life with an admiring audience of more than 300 at the National Gallery of Australia.
The South African-born designer - who has dressed royalty of every kind, from Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark to Oprah Winfrey and Cate Blanchett - told of her year-long family yacht journey to New Zealand, and getting her start in the fashion scene in Sydney.
''Dad's idea was to sail out of South Africa circumnavigating the world on our way to Canada - but after a year being at sea … we ended up at New Zealand, I was nine I think, and my mother just said the children have to go to school.''
Dinnigan, 48, in town to promote her book Obsessive Creative, moved to Sydney as an adult and worked at the ABC for many years doing costume design, before roles in the creation of rock music videos and the film industry.
The designer first made her name through lingerie and from humble beginnings one of the nation's leading fashion brands was born.
''[At the start] I just did everything, I did the sewing, the designs, the patterns, the sales - everything - so I learnt about the business very quickly,'' she said.
The well-dressed crowd heard of the dangers of budget-priced labels and the pressures of Paris catwalks.
The mother of two, whose son Hunter was born when she was 46, described having children at an older age.
''I don't think anyone should be perturbed about having a child later in life - but I also don't think we should think that you can, because it's very difficult, and I think this whole idea of women working and having their careers first and then getting into their 40s and thinking about having a child is wrong,'' she said.
''I really think a workplace has to change and accept that women want to have children.''
