A bikini made from tangled strands of diamantes drapes down the torso of Colombian superstar Shakira. She is singing from a floating pink bubble in the sky. It is the opening frame of the film clip for her 2024 single Puntería, which has amassed more than 78m views on YouTube.
Given the renown of the queen of Latin music, the scene’s Australian links are not immediately apparent. But the ornate bodysuit was a custom design by University of Technology Sydney graduate Caroline Reznik and handmade in her inner Sydney studio.
“The opportunity through social media has been otherworldly,” says Reznik, who is part of a growing cohort of young Australian designers being asked to create looks for the world’s biggest stars – often via DM. “The reach can be astronomical.”
The first celebrity who wore her designs was Doja Cat. In 2021, just a year after Reznik’s graduate collection went viral, the US singer featured her work in the film clip for Streets. This expanded to an invitation to collaborate on Doja Cat’s Coachella outfits in 2022.
Shakira’s team also took Reznik – a former dancer – from music video to stage. For Shakira’s world tour, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, the brief was to recreate pieces that built the singer’s “small but humble” stage presence in the 2000s. Reznik created layered lace and mesh leggings, which she has made in several colours so the pop star can wear them every night.
Reznik is understandably coy about other big names who have appeared in her inbox, since not every request materialises. When Madonna’s team inquired about buying her graduate collection, for instance, they could not agree on a price.
Often, given the fast-paced nature of megastardom, Australia’s distance is a hindrance for shipping and working across time zones.
In advance of English pop star Charli xcx’s Brat tour in 2024, her stylist, Chris Horan, emailed Sydney designer Ruby Pedder and gave her a budget to create whatever looks she wanted. “There was no brief, the fitting dates were all in Los Angeles and it was really complicated to get the clothes there in time,” says Pedder. “I ended up making her 13 pieces over two years, but she never actually wore any of them. Not that I saw.”
Pedder, who graduated from UTS in 2021, has had more success outfitting stars for local performances. After her first runway show at Australian fashion week, her corsets – made by hand-smocking meters of printed silk, a process which can take her up to three days – were worn at the AFL grand final by Katy Perry and on stage by K-pop star Jennie Kim during Blackpink’s Sydney show.
Pedder, who was in the Blackpink audience, says the experience was surreal. “I was so far away, and I just saw little Jennie bouncing around in my butterfly top that I’d just sewed on the ground of my studio a few weeks ago. I was like, ‘That just feels stupid.’”
Bethany Cordwell, a Brisbane-based artist and costumier at the Queensland Ballet, describes the global recognition that follows from dressing a superstar as a “wild card”. In 2022, Beyoncé wore a black-and-white bodysuit by Cordwell in the artwork for her album, Renaissance.
Beyoncé’s team discovered Cordwell on an Instagram account that champions new talent – Up Next Designer – and reached out via email. The piece was made from layers of tiny plastic triangles, hand-cut from document folders from her casual job at Officeworks. The effect is textural and fur-like.
“I love shiny things. I took a few folders home and started playing around with them,” Cordwell says. It was one of the last garments she made in that period. “I often think: ‘What if I didn’t allow myself that time to make it?’ The last few years would have definitely been different.”
Reznik, Pedder and Cordwell all say their brushes with fame have informed the direction of their businesses; but although it can be dreamlike, the material impact is unpredictable.
Melbourne designer Toby Wright’s recent experience proves this. A wool hat from his label Monphell went viral when Jack Harlow wore it in his Say Hello video. The hat’s strange shape and volume sparked a frenzy in the clip’s comment sections, but Wright told the New York Times that after this attention, he sold only one hat.
To gain exposure from dressing a star, costume designers are at the mercy of social media algorithms and how diligently celebrities or their stylists tag them – which they are not always inclined to do. This means designers have to push the association themselves by seeking out footage and images, producing their own content, reposting, tagging and hashtagging.
“It isn’t usual that the artists themselves will give me credit,” Reznik says. “Sometimes the teams do, and then you can gain more followers, but the hype around how that works is very algorithm based.”
For the most part Reznik, like Pedder and Cordwell, works on a made-to-order basis. The high-end commissions that can follow from an association with a celebrity are welcome. “More people reach out and it does bring in more work for me,” she says.
But Cordwell says the experience hasn’t necessarily changed her life, even though her work is immortalised in pop culture history. “It’s amazing that Beyoncé worked out, of all the people. The top of the top,” she says. “But it doesn’t guarantee anything else. So it’s been a journey.”
All three designers have considered, or are considering, relocating overseas to make these opportunities easier. Another Australian, Connor O’Grady, who made headlines last year when he created a costume for Chappell Roan using real human hair, is based in London. Pedder, who is planning a move later this year, feels the proximity to stars such as Charli xcx will help. She says: “I’m hoping I can actually run into her one day and be like, ‘Hi, what happened there?’”
But Reznik, who would like to expand into ready-to-wear, is reluctant to leave. “I’ve successfully been able to navigate it from here,” she says. “It’s a little bit healthier in terms of having my own environment to create in.”
Meanwhile, Adelaide couturier Paolo Sebastian provides the next generation with an example of a thriving, high-end, custom-made local business that also caters to international stars. In 2025, the brand’s designer Paul Vasileff created a silver, long-sleeved gown for Taylor Swift, worn in her video for The Fate of Ophelia. During the press tour for Wicked: For Good, Ariana Grande wore a soft pink Paolo Sebastian gown.
Vasileff says seeing his work on global stages is bizarre and deeply exciting, but he has a “simple” reason to stay in Australia.
“It is home … The ability to do this work from our Adelaide atelier is something the team is so proud of.”