About Tessuti

About Us

The Tessuti Fabrics story starts in 1992 when founder Colette Guanta made an impulse decision to help her mum Silva’s then faltering fashion label. She saw rolls and rolls of quality fabrics sitting unused and decided to try and generate some much-needed revenue for the business. Collecting as many fabrics as she could squeeze into her hatchback, she drove across Sydney and set up a couple of trestle tables in a vacant store. The response was so overwhelming that by lunchtime the fabrics had sold out and customers were asking for more.

The first Tessuti store opened in the northern Sydney suburb of Chatswood. At that time, the majority of Australian fashion labels were manufacturing locally and the store exclusively stocked designer ends purchased from Sydney-based fashion labels. As time passed and fashion manufacturing gradually began to move off-shore, the Tessuti range expanded to also carry European designer ends as well as a curated range of quality fabrics all chosen by Colette.

In 2005, Tessuti Fabrics opened their second Sydney location in Surry Hills. The online store went live in 2008 and their third bricks and mortar store opened in Melbourne in 2009.