Mattie Cronan

My name is Mattie Cronan and I am the style director for the Australian Women's Weekly magazine, a position I have held for over 15 years. During this time I have been fortunate enough to dress so many wonderful Australian women, including Queen Mary of Denmark, then known as Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary.

I first met Aurelio Costarella in 2005 when Aurelio would travel to Sydney to present his collections for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia. We connected immediately. It was always such a pleasure to see Aurelio on the east coast.

In early 2013 Aurelio presented Retrospect, a 30-year celebration of his career. That particular year Aurelio presented an installation rather than a runway show. This is where I first saw the Hestia gown, now known as the Queen Mary gown. The gown was an asymmetrical neckline with layer upon layer of nude champagne, golden honey toned silk tulle. The gown was hand draped and embellished with mother of pearl paillettes in a floral motif cascading down the front of the bodice. I instantly earmarked this for a very special project I was working on.

In August of 2013, the Australian Women's Weekly was busily working on a top secret project, the 80th anniversary cover shoot. Excitingly, we had secured an exclusive photo shoot of Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary to be photographed at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen. We discussed the concept with Her Royal Highness and her team that she would be styled in exclusively Australian designers. I set up phone calls and coffee meetings to ask five of our top designers if they would want to take part in this very special once in a lifetime shoot.

This shoot took place over the span of two days. The first day was a bit more of an informal meet and greet where we met Her Royal Highness and her team at Amalienborg Palace. We talked through all of the gowns that we had secured from back home and she showed us the beautiful newly renovated rooms within the palace. We were so excited to pair each gown with a particular room. As always cover shoots are fluid in nature. You often set out with a bit of a plan in mind but things can change at a moment's notice. The wardrobe might not work, the location might not be quite right and the lighting can change and this day was no exception. It was the last shot of the day that was an extra special one. The beautiful European afternoon sunlight was streaming through the balcony windows. We had shot Aurelio Costarella's Hestia gown in a gorgeous purple velvet armchair but it was when the crown princess sat on the floor cross-legged, bare feet, just looking beautiful, relaxed and supremely elegant that the whole team had shivers. We knew that this was a really special moment. When the shoot finished we busily went through all of the imagery and we were so excited to share what we created that day with the team back in Sydney. As soon as our editor-in-chief saw the images, she instantly knew it was the relaxed nature of Her Royal Highness, the then Crown Princess Mary, sitting cross-legged on the floor that this was the cover shot.

Aurelio's designs were one of a kind. His colour choice, the combinations, they were always so interesting and they were embellished in the most intricate way. His garments were walking pieces of art.