Interview | Petite Amalie Founder, Alex Vardakis

Alex, her husband and her three daughters, Ava, Amalia and Stephanie are based in Melbourne, Australia, and after a recent house move, they're settling down into their new home. Both Alex and her husband come from Greek families and are first-generation Australian. “My parents are from northern Greece. Right, right, at the top near North Macedonia and my husband's family is from Crete," Alex tells us, “We’ve got a real passion for Greece and we’ve been to Crete four times in the girls’ very short lives.” 

With three muses to base her designs on, Petite Amalie’s success lies in Alex’s life-long fascination with textiles and her very real understanding of what children want to wear. “I always test our clothes on my own children. A dress can be beautiful and stunning but if it's not comfortable, or if it doesn’t feel right, they just won't wear it,” she laughs. “I started the brand when my girls were little and I was looking for beautiful dresses for them to wear to events and there was a real lack of that here in Australia. In those early days, I never thought the brand would become international. I certainly didn't have as big a dream as what has transpired today."

While Petite Amalie was launched in 2017, the inspiration behind the brand can be traced all the way back to Alex's childhood, when she loved nothing more than spending hours trawling through antique fabrics and vintage clothing with her mum. "I’ve loved textiles ever since I was a little girl and my mum would always take me to antique stores to buy little remnants of Victorian or Edwardian fabric or beautiful little baby dresses just for the sheer beauty of them," she explains, "I have quite a collection of vintage fabrics, remnants and also pillowcases and beautiful embroidered sheets." While Alex regularly researches museum pieces for inspiration and finds herself down vintage rabbit holes on Pinterest, she is very aware that her clothing needs to appeal to a younger audience. "Petite Amalie is definitely an ode to the old world and my designs all have that in common but I suppose for me it's about presenting them in a fresh way and looking at how the modern girl would wear them," she tells us. 

Capturing the magic of her clothing in stunning vignettes is obviously a side of her business that Alex adores and the results are always spectacular but photo shoots on a much smaller scale delight her just as much. "Seeing photographs of girls wearing my dresses is my highlight. I absolutely love, love, love when I get sent pictures of girls wearing my clothes. If I'm at a wedding and I see a little girl wearing Petite Amalie I get so excited — so do my girls. I love the feedback."

There is one particular little girl Alex would love to see wearing her dresses though. "If we could dress Princess Charlotte, that would be a real milestone." she exclaims, "We love the royal family and we're always watching what they're wearing so that would be amazing."

Not just for princesses on duty, the Petite Amalie collection now includes more relaxed pieces made from soft denim, corduroy, chambray and wool that make the perfect capsule wardrobe.


All images by Petite Amalie