Diana Paolucci at her Dilettante concept store in Perth. Picture: Richard Hatherly Source: News Corp Australia

Eight years since opening her boundary-pushing boutique in Perth’s glamorous King St shopping precinct, the fashion devotee is taking a moment to look back, as she strives forward.

“I went to Paris with no contacts whatsoever. It was really difficult at the time, I had nowhere to start but I was really young and I just had balls,” Paolucci says.

“I’d probably be too intimidated to do that today.”

Now, she travels to Paris and Milan fashion weeks four times a year, attending runway shows, running luxury fabrics through her fingertips, carefully selecting collections and observing trends to bring back to Perth.

Paolucci credits her “elegant” mother, Sylvia, who joined her on that inaugural trip, with giving her the confidence to approach the greats of the fashion world.

“As kids, when we travelled we went to high-end stores and were exposed to those kind of designers so it wasn’t scary — it was what we knew,” she says.

“I loved going and looking at these beautiful spaces. The construction and quality of clothes was so different to what you’d see in Perth.”

Paolucci studied fashion textiles at TAFE and dabbled as a jewellery and then clothing designer before falling in love with retail.

Her property-investor parents had a King St address they’d been unable to rent out commercially, so they offered the space to the youngest of their three children at a discount.

“I jumped at it,” she says.

They also helped her buy that all-important first collection, paving the way for Dilettante to open in 2007.

Now it’s time for a new chapter. At a time when designer stores are closing left, right and centre, she’s investing in her fashion house, reinvigorating her bricks and mortar city flagship and shaking up the brands she stocks.

The end of Paolucci’s marriage (to bar owner Jan Kulski) has served as a catalyst for the store’s evolution — its transition mirroring her own.

“I used to live in this beautiful 1920s house, painted in really rich, dark colours and filled with antique furniture and taxidermy,” she says.

“(After the divorce) I went through this phase where I wanted everything to be clean and fuss-free, and easy to maintain. I guess you can see that change in the store and also in the way I live now.”

After closing for two months while she and her builder father, Ray, painted 6m walls, installed industrial, concrete-look panels and created a peaceful, white-washed space flecked with gilt mirrors and vertical fluorescent lights, Dilettante is jumping back into the limelight. It’s celebrating its new look with a relaunch party this week. “Rediscover Dilettante” will be the theme.

“You could spend that money on advertising, but I thought it was a good investment to spend it on the space and the opening party,” the 31-year-old says.

“I wanted to invest in the customer, celebrate them, rather than just keep plodding along. It’s nice to see some positivity, something to get customers excited, because there are a lot of stores closing now.”

How things were: Diana Paolucci at Dilettante in 2009. Source: News Limited

The store, best known for its daring, attention-grabbing avant garde garments by coveted international designers, is toning things down a notch.

Mimicking the simpler surrounds, more accessible “power brands” including Marni, Rick Owens, Marques Almeida, Christopher Kane and Giuseppe Zanotti are now being hung on display rails in blacks, whites and greys, alongside the long-time favourites Ann Demeulemeester, Vivienne Westwood, Toni Maticevski and Perth’s Paris-based Yang Li.

“We’ve stepped away from the brands that are really conceptual, quite heavy and perhaps not appropriate for our climate, to brands that are more contemporary and relevant to Perth,” Paolucci says.

“We’re focusing on everyday luxury items, things you can wear to the shops or for lunch.

“We’ve also been working on being more aware of price points — Pleats Please by Issey Miyake has been really well received, with things starting at $200.”

Paolucci undoubtedly draws her business savvy from her parents. Her father came to Perth as a 15-year-old Italian immigrant who didn’t speak English. From nothing, he started a building company with his father.

After Ray married Sylvia, an Australian born to Italian-Hungarian parents, the couple ran an import and export steel and wrought iron business and he designed gates for clients.

They then began building units and investing in real estate. Now, their focus is on commercial property investments.

Their office is above the Dilettante shopfront, shared with their fashion retailer daughter and their eldest son, Jamie, who manages the tenants in their properties.

The middle sibling, Robert, works in comic art and graphic design in New York.

Paolucci says being surrounded by her family is supportive, rather than smothering.

“Growing up in a family like mine, where my parents have always worked together, there’s no divide between work and life — that’s just who we are,” she says.

As King St opens up to Chinatown via the Perth City Link, Dilettante’s evolution will undoubtedly continue. And with her parents’ business advice ringing in her ears, it’s likely Paolucci will weather whatever downturns the fashion industry faces.

“They taught me if it doesn’t work out, you make a change,” she says. “You find a solution. It’s not the end of the world.”