About Us
The Tessuti Fabrics story involves a spontaneous act of family loyalty that turned into one of Australia's most beloved fabric retailers .
It began back in 1992 when Colette's mum, Silva, had a fashion label that was struggling as the recession hit. Colette was working with her back then, and saw hundreds of metres of beautiful, unused fabric sitting under the warehouse cutting tables.
On a whim, she decided to try to sell some and loaded her little hatchback with as many rolls as would fit, setting up a few trestle tables outside her boyfriend's cafe. At best she hoped for a few hundred dollars to feed back into the business but by lunchtime, everything had sold.
Customers recognised and appreciated the quality and were asking for more, so she hopped back into her car, drove across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and back again with another load of fabrics.
That impromptu sale evolved into the first bricks & mortar Tessuti Fabrics store in Chatswood, north of Sydney. Back then, most Australian fashion was still made locally, so the shop stocked designer offcuts from top local labels.
As manufacturing gradually shifted overseas, Colette expanded the range to include European designer deadstock and started curating collections of premium fabrics herself.
The Surry Hills store opened in 2005, online went live in 2008 and Melbourne opened in 2009.
Family remains at the heart of the business. After winding up her label in 2013, Silva joined Colette to work on the Tessuti sewing pattern collection, which began with the New York Cape in 2011 and has now grown to almost one hundred designs.
Classic, relaxed styles for all ages and skill levels, the patterns are designed with the same passion that started it all, and always driven by the desire to make something the team would love to wear themselves.
Over three decades later and in an always-challenging retail market, what hasn't changed at Tessuti is a love of quality fabric, the joy of making, and the customers who keep coming back for more.
