Escape to the country

Raised in New Zealand, design icon Collette Dinnigan opens the doors to her family homestead, where treasures from her travels rest side by side with the sights, sounds and style of her Australian life.

Home, wherever it is, is filled with relics from the places I have travelled and the adventures I've enjoyed along the way. I'm always hunting for that which I have not yet discovered. I relish learning the crafts of local artisans, whether it's throwing a vase or making orecchiette by hand, and I can't resist gathering bits here and there that take my eye-just as a bowerbird would.

Sometimes I wonder what will happen to everything when I go. I feel I've curated my own little museum of curiosities and collectables that may not necessarily mean anything to others, but for me, each piece tells a story. It might be a $10 oil painting from the markets in Brussels or a more exclusive sculpture from Monaco, but they all sit together in a world that brings me enormous joy.

In the same way as my objective in designing clothes was to make women feel confident and effortlessly stylish, I seek to create homes that have an easy elegance. There's an Italian word, "sprezzatura", that so beautifully embodies this concept. It essentially means a studied nonchalance or something that looks to be perfectly graceful, yet easily achieved. Style shouldn't feel overly contrived and I find when you mix pieces which have an emotional connection, rather than a financial one, your space naturally becomes an expression of yourself. I'm not a trained interior designer; what I do comes from instinct.