Meet Tilly Dunnage: our first look at Kate Winslet in The Dressmaker (Universal) Source: Supplied

The English Oscar-winner leaves behind the first look at the bittersweet comedy/drama she shot in Melbourne and rural Victoria, The Dressmaker.

Winslet plays Tilly Dunnage in the film — directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and based on Rosalie Ham’s 2000 novel — about a 1950s couturier who returns from Paris to her Aussie country home after many years away.

Only intending to briefly visit her eccentric mother, Tilly winds up staying and transforming the style of the local ladies while also exacting a little revenge on the townsfolk who drove her out years before.

The first-look image shows Winslet as Tilly in her hometown of Dungatar — standing in for the fictional town is Mt Rothwell, Little River.

The 2003 film Ned Kelly, starring Naomi Watts and Heath Ledger, was also shot at a homestead in this area.

Winslet attends a premiere in Toronto in September, prior to heading to Australia to shoot The Dressmaker (Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic) Source: Getty Images

The Dressmaker production was largely based at Melbourne’s Docklands Studios, with other location stints at Horsham and Jerilderie.

Winslet’s co-stars in the movie include Liam Hemsworth, Judy Davis (as Tilly’s eccentric mother), Hugo Weaving, Rebecca Gibney, Sacha Horler, Shane Jacobson and Sarah Snook.

“Working with Kate, Judy, Liam and Hugo was wonderful,” said Moorhouse in a statement to mark the completion of filming.

The director added that the image released “says everything about the character, a beautiful talented misfit, a dressmaker, returning home to right the wrongs of the past”.

Producer Sue Maslin thanked the communities involved in the shoot for everything from “unique locations to country extras, period vehicles to afternoon tea cakes”.

Winslet cuts a far more modern figure in the post-apocalyptic Divergent franchise (eOne) Source: Supplied

The Dressmaker will be released in Australia on October 1, 2015 by Universal Pictures. International sales are also in the works.

Winslet, star of Sense and Sensibility, Titanic and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, will also be seen next year in young-adult franchise The Divergent Series: Insurgent.