CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH
During her 50 YEARS in Australian fashion, CARLA ZAMPATTI has won the respect of an industry. But building a family business with her children is her most heartfelt achievement.
The name Carla Zampatti is well known and well loved in fashion and artistic circles. Te doyenne of Australian fashion and her classic designs are feted by everyone from Princess Mary of Denmark to actor Marta Dusseldorp and the former Governor-General Quentin Bryce. In person we know she is warm, smart and loves a good laugh, often at her own expense.
We’ve also come to know her eldest daughter, designer Bianca Spender, who has developed her own sophisticated and feminine label. If further proof was needed of just how talented she is it was delivered when she was named regional fnalist of the ’15/’16 International Woolmark Prize in July, which now sees her move through to the international fnal in New York in February.
But what of her other daughter Allegra Spender, the modest, fercely intelligent youngest member of the family who quietly works away behind the scenes ensuring their family-owned and -operated business runs smoothly, successfully and harmoniously? And what of Carla Zampatti, the mother and grandmother, as seen through the eyes of her most honest critics: her daughters? It is a brave woman who welcomes the lens being turned on her in such a way, but in customary Zampatti style she relishes the opportunity. What results is a frank, generous and insightful conversation.
Seeing them together in Zampatti’s elegant living room, with its beautiful view up Sydney Harbour, it’s fascinating to observe the dynamic between these three strong women who are so diferent and yet so undeniably the same. Bianca is not afraid to disagree with Zampatti, while Allegra is more gentle, the diplomat. It is remarkable they all manage to work together in a family business, a notoriously difcult set-up that too often results in fallouts.
Of course, for decades, Zampatti ran the business herself. Te seeds of this resolute independence were sewn young – from the feisty nine-year-old girl who swapped the outdoor lifestyle of Lovero, northern Italy, for Fremantle and later Sydney, where she boldly moved in her early 20s, quickly landing a job with a blouse manufacturer. She soon struck out on her own, adamant she could turn her design dreams into a reality and in 1965 she produced her frst small collection. Five years later the Carla Zampatti label was born. Tere have been some memorable moments along the way: being named Bulletin/ Qantas Businesswoman of the Year in 1980; designing a car tailored for women for Ford Australia in 1985; named Designer of the Year in 1994 and appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2009.
Tis year, Zampatti is celebrating a rare fashion milestone: 50 years of working successfully in the most fckle of industries, one that continues to embrace her designs. Commemorating the occasion is Carla Zampatti: Celebrate Carla Style (HarperCollins), a cofeetable book of her life in pictures, while Zampatti’s autobiography, My Life, My Look (HarperCollins), launches this month.
Perhaps her greatest co-creation however, is her family: son Alexander [to her frst husband Leo Schuman], her two daughters and eight grandchildren. Today, her children are all directors of the family business that is Carla Zampatti Pty Ltd: Alexander acts as investment advisor, Allegra is managing director and the Bianca Spender label is part of the company. But Zampatti’s daughters have been informally working for the company since they were children, when Zampatti would enlist them during school holidays (they were eventually paid, recalls Allegra with a faux grimace). Tey may have been known as the latch-key kids, brought up
with a full-time nanny and a mother who regularly ran late and rarely made school events; but both women are quick to acknowledge today the strong work ethic she instilled and the possibilities she showed them at a time when professional mothers were still the exception.
Te absence of hands-on parents – father John Spender was a barrister and politician – doesn’t seem to have impacted negatively on either of them. Allegra was head girl and dux of the esteemed Ascham School in Sydney, going on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, then working in London for seven years; while Bianca earned a commerce degree in Sydney before giving in to her innate talent and passion for design, studying at the East Sydney Fashion Design School then moving to northern Italy and Paris, where she worked for Martine Sitbon. Te women resettled in Australia seven and 12 years ago respectively.
Now they are working mothers themselves – Allegra to daughters Arietta and Octavia, while Bianca has two sons, Dominic and Florian – and grappling with the same issues Zampatti faced. “Te biggest challenge was overcoming your own fear of not doing the right thing by your child. Te fact you’re not there all the time, and having been brought up by a mother who was, it was a challenge for me,” Zampatti says. “But when I compare my kids to kids who had the ‘perfect’ mother I think it’s interesting that you do inject a drive and energy, and the right attitude.”
Being dragged to Zampatti’s studios as children gave them an insight into what their mother did all those years. While Bianca’s partner, Sam McGuinness, is a hands-on dad, she says the workforce has by no means reached equality and she too is now grateful for working in a family business. “Te interesting thing is the way they can relate. I’ll call up late at night and they’ll ask: ‘Is Allegra there? Is nonna [Zampatti] there?’” Bianca says. It also afords her sons an understanding of what she does. “Tere’s a real physicality to what I do. I’ll wear a dress and they’ll ask: ‘Is that yours?’ and then a friend will be wearing one of my dresses and they’ll say: ‘ Tat’s Mummy’s dress, you need to give it back.’ I feel lucky in that way, because I think it would be harder if they didn’t understand.”
But for many years Bianca assumed she would never work alongside her mother. “Bianca did not want to work with me at all,” Zampatti says pointedly. “Mum and I are …” starts Bianca. “Very diferent,” intercedes Zampatti. Bianca continues: “We love a lot of beautiful things together but we’re very diferent communicators. I’m a super-perfectionist: she’s super-macro. I need to be nourished: she needs to be challenged. I was aware of all those dynamics from a young age and I defnitely never considered us working together.”
“What happened?” asks Zampatti, curiously. What happened was Bianca received independent endorsement for her talents as a designer. She joined Zampatti’s team after three designers had departed the company over four years, with the understanding they would let the customers call the shots: if they bought the clothes she stayed; if they didn’t, she would leave. Today Bianca has two retail stores, an e-boutique and her label is stocked in David Jones. She now works separately from Zampatti, albeit in the same building. “I’ve been working for Mum for 12 years,” Bianca says. “With me darling, with me,” Zampatti says, laughing gently.
As a family business they have gained a deeper sense of trust of each other. “Bianca and I got closer as a result,” Zampatti says. “And appreciated what the other did,” adds Bianca. “Understood the other in a way we hadn’t before,” agrees Zampatti.
Zampatti has said her 100-plus staf would describe her as “tough but fair”. She points out that her expectations are high and she’s disappointed if people don’t reach their potential. “You’re tough, but on the other side you’re also warm,” Allegra says. Bianca recalls a reception at a swanky hotel welcoming Zampatti as chairman of the SBS Corporation when one of the staf accidentally spilt a drink all over her. “He was absolutely mortifed but Mum couldn’t have been more obliging, warm and understanding. Tere are diferent moments, but she’s still our mum: we don’t treat her with any airs.” “Defnitely no airs,” agrees Zampatti. “But,” continues Bianca, determined to fnish her sentence, “there are people who think they need to, then fnd out that’s not the case.”
In fact, they are all three of them warm, in their own way, and they also share a deep community-minded spirit. Zampatti has
long championed the rights of women in fashion, and is a founding board member of the Australian Fashion Chamber. She’s also given her time to serving on and supporting arts boards, including the Sydney Dance Company, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney Teatre Company Foundation. Allegra, too, is community-focused, whether it be through the Sydney Renewable Power Company board she chairs or the year she spent volunteering in Kenya. “I grew up with a lot of privilege and I know Bianca feels the same; we had a lot of advantages as kids, so you want more people in the world to have opportunities,” Allegra says.
Tey are also all undeniably Italian: fery, passionate, independent, opinionated and loving. “When I went to Italy I rang Allegra and said: ‘Mum makes sense: there’s a whole country of her here! It was illuminating,” Bianca says, laughing. “And it’s an Italian family business in that it’s passionate, fexible, warm, there’s a sense of community, we all have lunch together and it’s not authoritarian. And I think Mum has always been very connected with the clothes and the women who wear them. Tat connectedness, that channel direct to the woman, is intrinsically Italian.”
Bianca has lost count of the number of women who have begged her to tell Zampatti how strongly they feel. For them it’s as though Zampatti has designed clothes for them personally, so beautifully do they ft. “Tey say: ‘Can you please tell your mother it was like she did it for me,’” relays Bianca. “And it’s true,” adds Allegra.
Zampatti’s endorsements and the outpouring of public afection are all undeniable but it is touching to see the efect this compliment has when it comes from two of the people who know her best, who just happen to be the two women of whom she is most proud. “Tank you girls,” she says, sounding genuinely pleased. “Tank you.” Carla Zampatti: Celebrate Carla Style will be launched at a gala event at National Gallery of Victoria International on September 22, with a fashion show and Sydney Dance Company performance. Go to www.ngv.vic.gov.au.