Dimitra Papafotiou – Wine Time With Mitch

Dimitra is a walking and talking (and glamorous) advocate for Aussie-made fashion^. Her famed “made in Melbourne” clothing brand DIIDA – which is elevated daywear and glam evening attire – will soon celebrate its eighth birthday and has just opened a new boutique in the uber-trendy fashion hub of Greville Street in Prahran. Today, I joined Dimi at “frock central” for a new year chat over a glass of Aussie bubbles (she chose Devil’s Corner from Tassie). Her passion for educating every customer about the importance of Australian-made is intoxicating (not to be confused with intoxicated which we would have been after another bottle).

Dimi has been in fashion most of her life as a buyer and product developer.  “I love bricks and mortar and customer service. Touch and feel^.  It’s an emotional connection. I want to be a successful and growing Australian made business and that has always been the vision,” she says. She was about to expand her business into Sydney and the Gold Coast when, you guessed it, COVID hit. She was then forced to shut her other Melbourne store in the iconic Emporium building in the CBD and it was back to ground zero. But out of the never-ending retail fog of COVID, came a green and gold light for the businesswoman. 

“The struggle has been really educating the Australian consumer about local manufacturing because a lot of people don’t really understand it. They do now. All of a sudden, people were aware of job losses and it really opened up lots of eyes to the fact that we don’t manufacture enough of what we need at home. There is this idea that off shore is more cost effective but I tell you it’s not. I have done the whole process,” she says. ^. Dimi passionately points out that overseas production sees transactions in USD which is a poor exchange rate, and that she would be forced, as a small operator, to hire people who can communicate with overseas manufacturers, in addition to the lost productivity with mistakes in samples.  “That whole process of being directly involved is what keeps me going and gives me that fire,” she smiles.. 

“I hire a design assistant to do all of the CAD work, I then have a pattern maker, then I have a grader who does the sizing, then I also contact fabric agents. That’s already four jobs for just one style. Then there is the trim guy who does the buttons in Fitzroy and then there is my makers.  Along all that line. I am paying six people. That’s lots of local employment^. If you understand how much goes into the making of one product, people will pay that money for it,” she says.

Dimi is now, once again, focusing on Sydney and the Gold Coast, and possibly Brisbane, for the next rollout of stores over coming years. She also wants to wholesale into boutiques and potentially a department store. “It’s about educating the consumer 100 per cent. If I am not talking to my customers about why supporting Australian-made is important, they don’t know,” she says. Some of the well-known customers to wear her local brand include music royalty Delta Goodrem and Dannii Minogue. “You can be cost efficient and you can be Australian made. I continue to survive the challenges because I am not going to go off shore,” she says.  Let’s drink to that (Devil’s Corner of course)