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.