Carla Zampatti: As Timeless As The Clothes She Designed
Carla Zampatti has always been a label I loved. I wore a Carla Zampatti waterfall dress with gold-buttoned jacket for my son’s bar mitzvah; I wrote about wearing one of her coats in lockdown when I yearned to dress up. Tellingly, I have never thrown a Carla Zampatti garment away. Each one remains as flattering and empowering as when I bought it.
I like to imagine that Carla designed with powerful women in mind. Put on one of her pieces – like my silver shirt with balloon sleeves and a pussy-bow necktie, or the black cape with indented waist that can be worn as a dress or unbuttoned for superhero missions – and you instantly want to stand up straighter, puff your shoulders out, flex your arms.
There’s a signature Carla Zampatti look. Shoulders are strong, lines are neat and she often threw a touch of the ’80s into her collections. Her pieces show off a woman’s shape without being revealing. You can wear a Carla Zampatti outfit to meet the mother, woo the new love or taunt the ex.
She was a fixture at fashion parades I attended, sporting her trademark sunglasses, blunt-cut hair and sharp-cut suits. Sometimes her daughter, fashion designer Bianca Spender, one of her three children, would be nearby. Carla was ageless and fit (she told The Australian Financial Review last year that she swam daily), so her sudden death, following a fall at Opera Australia’s outdoor opera La Traviata in Sydney, left me – like so many other people – shocked, shaken, deeply saddened.
When I interviewed Carla in 2015, ahead of a gala event at the National Gallery of Victoria to mark her half-century in the fashion industry, she described her brand’s DNA as combining simplicity and strength.
“With shapes, I’ve always liked drama and I like boldness. I like a piece to make some kind of statement.”
Much of that interview was never published – until now. Carla told me she was still excited by dressing women and seeing the impact that had. “I met a woman the other day wearing one of my capes. She said, ‘I have it in three colours!’ I have a thrill whenever women email me, and they email me constantly about what a difference I made to their lives, which is extraordinary.
“How you look and how you feel you look on a particular day makes a big difference [in terms of] what kind of day you’re going to have. If you feel fabulous about what you’re wearing, it does allow you to have greater confidence.”
Her long list of achievements includes being the first holder of the Bulletin/Qantas Businesswoman of the Year award, the design of a car for Ford, featuring on an Australian stamp, and her appointment as the first female chair of SBS television.
“If you’re busy working at something you love, you do evolve and get better at what you do. I think, as long as you never take it for granted, as long as you’re not lazy about what you do, you become stronger and better.”
“In the past, I must admit that when I won Businesswoman of the Year, I thought, ‘My goodness, people regard me as a serious businesswoman!’” she told me. “It’s a kind of evolution that happens in your journey; if you’re busy working at something you love, you do evolve and get better at what you do. I think as long as you never take it for granted, as long as you’re not lazy about what you do, you become stronger and better.”
Even before the #MeToo movement had begun, Carla said she designed for the fierceness she saw in women. It was a quality she recognised in herself, being a woman “who started a business all by myself, and that was quite daunting. Women [at that time] were still having doubts about their own abilities. Today, women know they are capable, they know they can do anything they really desire. The evolution of women [since I started] has been phenomenal, and I am influenced by that – where they are going and what they are achieving.”
Her self-confidence, she said, helped her stay true to her brand’s firm identity. “How can you convince people you know what you’re doing if you keep changing too much? I think it’s very important to be true to what you really believe in.”
She also had a list of women whose aesthetic she admired: “Number one would be Quentin Bryce, she’s immaculate top to toe. Julie Bishop is amazing and beautiful, and she has impeccable taste. I was at a lunch and said to her, ‘You have to tell me where you buy your clothes!’ Ita Buttrose is a wonderful, talented woman. Cate Blanchett has amazing taste and she loves my jumpsuits. And Princess Mary was also was delighted when one of my garments was sent to her for her to be photographed in; she asked if she could keep it.”
When asked about her life lessons, she said, “Being independent has served me really well. I learnt early in life that you have to be financially independent and maintaining that and realising that is really important.” She also said, “I’m a born optimist, so I’m very fortunate. Negative things happen to everybody, but I think you have to move on.”
I’ll remember Carla for her openness, her good sense, her ability to get to the point. I admire her business nous and fashion astuteness, of course, but I’ll always think of a woman who showed up and gave her best at every turn. She might have been in a room filled with models and designers and fashion press and socialites, but she always stood out. She glittered until the very end.
Carla Zampatti (May 19, 1942 – April 3, 2021) is survived by her three children from two marriages (to Leo Schuman and John Spender): Alexander Schuman, Allegra Spender and Bianca Spender and nine grandchildren.
Words_ Rachelle Unreich
Photos_ Sourced + George Jensen/Vivianna Torun/Dominic Loneragan