A snubbing by The New York Times couldn't dampen the spirits of J'Aton's designers after they discovered Beyonce wore their gown for her most high-profile performance of the year.
"For Beyonce, an Unexpected Performance in an Unexpected Look," The Times headline explained after the singer took to the stage with the Dixie Chicks at this year's Country Music Awards wearing the Australian label.
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The Times, the bastion of news and culture that will soon open a bureau in the Great Southern Land, dedicated more newsprint inches to the dress Beyonce wore when getting out of the limo than the J'Aton Couture gown she was sewn into for her groundbreaking performance.
"The dress she wore onstage (a semitransparent, beaded, cream gown with a low-cut front and an even lower-cut back) dipped into two fashion elements that dominated the runways this fall: big shoulders, and their cousin, '80s silhouettes," the report said before sledging the gown for being a throwback.
Beyonce herself discovered the label on Instagram and her stylist contacted the pair, Jacob Luppino and Anthony Pittorino, with the singer's preferred shapes and colours. The dress was sent without any expectation she would ever wear it. Celebrities of Beyonce's magnitude are inundated with free dresses from the biggest names in the business like Givenchy and Balmain. Then, at 4am the morning after the CMAs last week, a phone call woke the pair from a deep slumber, interrupting their Italian holiday. It was an assistant telling them they'd finally gone global.
J'Aton are a household name for red carpet dressing at home in Australia. With the Beyonce dress they pulled off the biggest coup of their career. No mean feat for the pair whose creations are all made to measure and take about four people (sometimes even their mothers pick up a needle and thread) and 100 hours to produce.
J'Aton's signature is heavily embellished evening wear, made in the true sense of the European tradition of couture.
The pair cut, drape and pin every panel to the body before hand sewing every bead and detail into place. Some looks, like their best client Rebecca Judd's wedding gown, took months to produce. However another, her 2015 Brownlow look, was pulled together in less than 24 hours after the correct neon beading had to be sourced from overseas.
For more than 22 years they have been the quiet achievers of the Australian fashion industry after growing up in Italian families in working-class suburban Melbourne during the '70s.
Simple gowns, both bridal and evening wear, retail from about $10,000 up to $40,000 for a more elaborate creation.
"They have absolutely made it now," Women's Wear Daily contributor Patty Huntington said. "It's not before time, they are very talented designers but they need to mobilise. Muhammad must go to the mountain now, they need to be in the US networking with these stylists, staging trunk shows in the Middle East, where the big evening wear clients are, and setting up a showroom during Paris Fashion Week."
During "Project Dressing Beyonce for the CMAs", they also managed to create the blueprint for a shoe collection, two bespoke gowns for this year's Brownlow, for Nadia Bartel and Jordan Ablett, as well as putting the finishing touches on their activewear collaboration with Jaggad – a brand co-owned by their Melbourne muse, Judd.
"Every woman aspires to wear a J'Aton wedding dress or gown but the price points are so high," Judd said. "This collaboration takes the best of their couture flair – detailed, intricate techniques and flattering lines – to workout gear. It will be an ongoing partnership with the boys."
Celebrities who wear their designs to events like the Logies are usually gifted the final look, it has not been confirmed if Beyonce paid for her dress, a dress that was a statement all on its own.
Beyonce – a black singer who established her name in the R&B; genre – wore a dress that featured silhouettes similar to those of outfits worn by white plantation wives. And she wore that dress while being the headline act at country music's night of nights – an awards show that usually celebrates white singers – alongside the maligned Dixie Chicks.
The Beyonce-Dixie Chicks duet of the former's quasi country song, Daddy Lessons, was marinated in subtle social activism and woven together with a political thread thanks to J'Aton. Beyonce wearing a gown by relative unknowns helped the message be louder than the medium.
Beyonce belting out a song about bad men and their demise would have struck a chord with the duo, Pittorino in particular, who had a rocky childhood after his accountant father was jailed for embezzlement.
WATCH: Beyoncé & @dixiechicks perform "Daddy Lessons" at the #CMAawards50. pic.twitter.com/Q4Em35rBAz
— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@Bey_Legion) November 3, 2016
J'Aton have had their fair share of setbacks while planning their life-long dream of expanding into the US, a move in the works for more than seven years.
A showroom fire that "financially ruined" the label in 2008, failed investment deals and a lack of support from the local industry thwarted their progression throughout their 22-year career.
"We've had it really tough," Luppino told Fairfax Media back in 2009.
"The Australian fashion industry hasn't acknowledged our label for a long time and a lot of the major magazines wouldn't give us the time of day, and to this day, still don't. And for us, that's the biggest insult you can receive as a designer."
Now thanks to the support of women who've gone on to build their own empires, from Bec Judd to Beyonce, the little label that could is on the rise.