Romeo Bastone Designer Profile
Understated excellence and personal service are the
hallmarks of Romeo Bastone Couture. Award winning
designer, Josephine Bastone, has enjoyed outstanding
success since 1991.
In 1998, the Australian Bridal Industry Academy Awards for
Excellence (ABIA) were introduced to Victoria. Josephine was the first overall
winner of the Designer Couture
Gown category. For the 2000 ABIA Awards, Romeo Bastone Couture
collected another award, voted No 1 by her customers.
Following Judging of the 2001 Australian Achiever Awards
for Melbourne's Fashion and clothing services and
supplies category, Josephine acheived a score of 99.84%
for customer relations and service. This is an
outstanding result and shows that she recognizes the value of good
customer relations.
With the judging of the 2001 Australian Achiever Awards
for Melbourne's Bridal and Wedding Services and
Supplies, Romeo Bastone Couture achieved a 99.58% score
for customer relations and an outstanding result and
reinstates that Josephne recognises the value of good
customer relations. This result also means that Romeo Bastone Couture
is the overall winner of the 2001 Australian Achiever Award for
the Bridal Wedding Services & Supplies in Melbourne.
During the same year, Romeo Bastone Couture also won
three ABIA Awards, including Designer & Couture Gown,
marking an ABIA record. Josephine was again awarded the Designer & Couture Gown Award by
her customers in 2002, '03, '04/05,'06,07,08 and has recently won this category once again
for the 2009 Australian Bridal Industry Academy Awards. In 2007, a National
Diamond Star Award was also won by Josephine of Romeo Bastone
Couture and for the 2009 ABIA Awards, Romeo Bastone Couture was
inducted into the Hall of Fame for continued excellence in Bridal Couture.
The opening of her Prahran East Gallery has been in response
to client demand for her elegant corseted made-to-measure and
off-the-rack bridal, bridesmaids and evening wear.
Josephine's experience and knowledge enable her to
provide individual attention to brides and attendants,
from the first consultation to the finished gown. She
uses only the finest fabrics and laces and intricate
(yet delicate) use of beading and her inspiration
results in beautiful designs to create innovative, individual gowns.
She works with each client to discuss shape, design and colour
that meet exact requirements. Josephine also provides
co-ordinating accessories and stocks bridal gifts,
making Romeo Bastone Couture a one-stop boutique for bridal parties. Josephine
prefers to have six to eight months (although there have been and
will always be exceptions of much less time) to create one of her
masterpieces and an appointment is essential.
It's Couture
Darling
Couture is a term that most of you who read fashion magazines will
have heard of, but what is it really? And what’s involved with
getting a couture gown made especially for you for your wedding day?
Kate Burbury, Wedding and Bride Magazine, talks to a bridal
couturier to find out more.
“A couturier must be: an architect for design, a sculptor for shape,
a painter for colour, a musician for harmony and a philosopher for
temperance.” – Cristobel Balenciaga
Couture is defined by the Macquarie Dictionary as “the occupation of
a couturier; dressmaking and designing considered together.” And a
couturier as a “someone who designs, makes, and sells fashionable
clothes for women.” While this goes some way to introducing the art
of couture, there is a lot more to true couture than this definition
implies. Couture is best known in terms of haute couture; high
fashion that is made to order for individual customers, creating a
perfect fi t and design for them. High quality fabrics are used, and
these are cut and sewn with great expertise and attention to detail.
A lot of the work is done by hand by very skilled technicians.
The fit of the garment is a very important aspect of couture. The
designer will take the client through a series of fittings to ensure
the absolute correct measurements of the finished garment.
Innovative designs and refined construction techniques are also
major features of couture.
The couturier Charles Frederick Worth is widely considered to be the
father of haute couture as it is known today. While he created
one-of-a-kind designs to please some of his wealthier customers, he
is best known for creating a collection of garments that were shown
on live models at the House of Worth. Clients selected one design,
specified colours and fabrics, and had a duplicate garment
tailor-made for them.
In France, the term haute couture is protected by law. Only select
fashion
houses are entitled to label themselves as haute couture, and to be
able to do so they must follow these rules (set down by the Chambre
Syndicale de la Haute Couture, the governing union for haute
couture):
• Design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more
fittings.
• Have a workshop in Paris that employs at least 15 people
full-time.
• Present a collection to the Paris press twice a year, comprising
of at least 35 runs with outfits for both daytime wear and evening
wear.
While there are set rules for haute couture, the concept of couture
itself is more general, but still follows the same philosophy when
it comes to design, quality and fit. Unfortunately, couture has come
to be a term that is bandied about a lot, especially in the bridal
industry, but bridal couturier Josephine Bastone, of the label Romeo
Bastone Couture, defines real couture as working one-on-one with a
customer to create the perfect gown for them.
“I believe a bridal couturier should be able to consult with the
person and advise according to body shape, design and colour and
then be able to construct the gown from the initial stage, as in all
the fittings, to the final fitting stage.
“They don’t have to make up the whole gown, although in my case I do
everything up to the lining stage, so basically I do all the cutting
for the first fitting, which is the canvas foundation fitting
because I cut straight onto fabric.
“A couturier in the 50s actually cut straight onto fabric as opposed
to making patterns. So over the years people have called themselves
couturiers, but I would call them dressmakers.
“There is a true difference between a person who has been taught to
cut straight onto fabric, and to drape onto the body, as opposed to
cutting from a pattern and doing a calico.
“I have never done a calico in my life.
“A true couturier should be able to start from scratch, as far as
consulting with the customer for body shape, design, then colour,
then come to cutting table and be able to cut the first layer.
That’s my foundation fitting, where I actually cut straight onto the
cloth, the first layer that I use to give them their first fitting.
“I don’t believe in calicos, they will just not drape. I work
straight onto the first stage which is the foundation fitting, then
onto the second stage which is the shape fitting, then onto the
third stage which is the detail fitting, and then the final product.
But there are very few left in this industry who work like that.”
Josephine learnt the art of couture predominantly from her mother
Teresa Romeo, whom the label is also named after. “She was the one
that taught me to cut straight onto the fabric, she gave me that
technique. But even my mother doesn’t do what I do now, because my
skills have developed over the years.
“I am a believer that permanent practice gets you the best results.
So she initially taught me to cut straight onto the fabric. Her ways
back then were more dressmaking in the sense that a lot of the
fabrics that are around now were not around. She did a lot more
dressmaking for tailoring suits, whereas that was not my forte.
“I am more into structured corseted bodices, beading and detailing
with lace. She gave me the foundation, and I then went on to RMIT to
get my three year degree, but honestly, that only gave me a piece of
paper in order to get my first job. I probably wouldn’t be here
without my mum.
“A lot of other people in my course were exceptional designers, but
they didn’t have a clue about pattern making, or structure and
construction. At the end of the day, even though you would classify
me as a qualified BA Fashion Designer, I would never call myself a
fashion designer. But I do classify myself as a Couture Designer,
because I have earned the right and can honour myself with such a
title, one of very few remaining in this industry.” she says.
Having a couture gown made is quite an involved process, and a time
consuming one. Josephine starts her process by having clients come
in and try on different gowns that she already has. She asks them to
try on the gowns that they like, and then if they haven’t chosen
dresses that suit their shape she will step in and advise them on a
better choice.
“Eight times out of ten, the gown is correct. But I always give my
honest opinion. That is part of being a couturier, working to the
shape of the body and making the body look the best it can. So when
they first come in, I look at shape, design and colour.
“Girls, on occasion, come in and may have an idea and always
ask if I can elaborate on that and that’s where I start to point
them in direction of shape, and then we start to talk about detail.
It is always those stages: shape, design, detail and colour.”
Josephine allows for two free fittings to work out dress designs to
suit a client, and if they place an order there is then a further
four appointments required. These appointments are to go through and
check the progress of foundation, shape, detail and then the final
gown.
The length of time the dress takes to make depends on the individual
design, but Josephine prefers to have six to eight months to work on
and perfect the dress, although most girls give her less time than
that. And it takes longer if she has to import lace and particular
materials. She also does all the beading on the dresses herself. “I
don’t work mass here, I work quality,” she says.
Most of her designs are inspired by the customers themselves. “I
might have customers that come in and they have mixed and matched
dresses of mine, and I decide that I like it, and realise that would
suit quite a few body shapes, so I go ahead and make it as a sample.
“I suppose if I have to draw inspiration I will always go back to
40s and 50s Balenciaga, he was just out of this world.”
She also gets ideas from watching events like the Oscars, and
sometimes overseas magazines. Her designs tend to be more classical
and timeless however, rather than changing with the fashions. “I
like to think my gowns are not going to date and take on the
timeless element, so when I make a dress for a girl, I hope that she will look
back at it, and still think it looks gorgeous.
“What I find is that people are really going for classical designs,
a lot of elongated bodices, whether it be on a slimmer line skirt or
on a fuller skirt, but not so much detailing on the skirt itself,
just on the bodice. “People are going for very classical, timeless
lines, giving a great shape around your waistline. That’s what
people look at when you’re walking down the aisle – the waist area,
and if that looks great, then they look at other areas. That’s why I
concentrate on the bodice element.”
Josephine has won 14 Australian Bridal Industry Awards (ABIA) during
her time in the industry, and won the 2009 Designer & Couture Gown
Award. She was inducted into the ABIA Hall of Fame at the 2009
Awards and attributes her success to her passion and the rapport she
builds with her clients. “I love my job. I have passion and that is
what has made me succeed. I have won a lot of awards because I
really love my job.
“To me it is the satisfaction of a girl coming in, whatever shape
and size, and at the end of the day I create a gown that will
enhance their shape and make their waistline look smaller, and they
walk out with more confidence. They always say, ‘why hasn’t anyone
else mentioned this to me?’ And I say, ‘well they are retailers, I
work as a true Couturier.'
“They are not my customers, they are my girls. They always send me
photos for my website, or my folios, which I display. I would like
to think in the next 20 years I will still be doing this,” Josephine
says.
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