What do you think about birds?” asks fashion designer Bianca Spender. We’re in her new studio in Sydney’s Rushcutters Bay – after years of sharing commercial premises in town with her mother, Carla Zampatti, Spender moved in January. The new digs are a bijou jewel with harbour glimpses, i.e. tiny, but she’s delighted to be crammed in here with her small team.

She proffers a dog-eared copy of The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. “I’ve spent the last week identifying birds for the boys.” Sons Dominic and Florian are 7 and 10. “It occurred to us that birds are very fashion. I mean, look at cockatoos with their punk yellow hair.”