ALANNAH HILL RESIGNS FROM HER LABEL

One of Australia’s most colourful fashion designers, Alannah Hill has called it quits on her eponymous label

THE announcement that Alannah Hill would no longer be working with Factory X, the Melbourne-based business run by David Heeney which has financially backed her girly chic brand for 16 years, was both a shock and a surprise.



I know Alannah and her older sister Mary Ellen from high school days when we played on the same basketball team in Penguin, Tasmania in the mid 1970s.

She has come a long way since the days of her family’s milk bar on Ironcliffe Rd, Penguin.

Contrary to popular brief, she did not run away with a circus. She moved to Melbourne aged 17 and landed a small role in the 1987 art house film Dogs In Space starring Michael Hutchence. But while waitressing she was offered a job at Indigo, a fashion store on Chapel St, South Yarra, where she worked for 15 years before starting her own fashion designs label in 1996.

“I am deeply saddened to make this monumental decision. 

I was completely devoted to my label and all that it represents to girls Australia-wide

The red-lipstick-wearing-flower-in-her-hair Hill lives and breathes her brand, and her powerhouse personality will be sorely missed on the fashion circuit. But not for long she assures us.

“I am completely devoted to my label and all that it represents to girls Australia-wide,” she said. “My heart, my soul, my every little thing has been poured into creating a brand for girls who love and share my vision of ornamental, sensational and beautiful clothes.”

“I won’t be taking a well-earned break, nor will I be going on safari,” she explained through a press release.

Factory X will continue to operate the 42 Alannah Hill stores nationwide. However, she will not design for, or have any further input into, the brand that bears her name.

I wish her all the best, and have no doubt that this won’t be the last we’ll see of her.