Fashion designer Daniel Lightfoot farewelled by friends and family in Brisbane
Friends and family of beloved Brisbane fashion designer Daniel Lightfoot have farewelled the industry giant after his sudden death on Christmas Day.
Confidential
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The dress code was “anything but black” as the red carpet was rolled out – one last time – for famed Brisbane fashion designer Daniel Lightfoot.
Lightfoot died suddenly on Christmas Day, aged 58.
His memorial service at Victory Church, Bridgeman Downs, on Thursday was a kaleidoscope of style, colour and humour – just like the man himself.
Daniel Lightfoot shaped the sophisticated dressing of Queenslanders from the 1980s into the 2010s, and once dressed Liza Minnelli.
His many achievements were showcased on large screens, along with his myriad RAQ award trophies and a dressmaker’s mannequin draped in exquisite fabric from his personal archives.
There were no sombre funeral hymns; instead Madonna’s Vogue, Joe Cocker’s You Are So Beautiful and Donna Lewis’ I Love You Always Forever.
Lightfoot’s only child Paris, 25, delivered a beautiful tribute to her “Dadda”.
“He was the most fun, hilarious and incredibly loving dad – and not just a regular dad, a very groovy and cool dad who would pick me up from school in a blue Aston Martin,” said Ms Lightfoot, wearing a shimmering yellow cocktail dress.
“He spoiled me rotten. Not many girls can actually say their dad bought them a pony, but mine did – without telling Mum.”
Ms Lightfoot said her father was always on the sidelines of her sporting games, “dressed to impress, yelling ‘go P’.
“He was certainly the only dad to bring a bottle of French champagne to watch a game of AFL.”
She said she would cherish forever the formal dresses and horse riding jackets made by her father, who taught her how to be lighthearted, fearless and “unapologetically me”.
“While I am heartbroken now that you are gone, I smile because you have lived,” she said.
“May you rest in peace now, Dadda.
“You can be who you want to be up in heaven, laughing, joking, dancing, eating whatever your heart desires, and dressing all those beautiful angels up there with you.”
Lightfoot’s sisters Libby and Ally read a passage from the Bible and a poem respectively, while friend Cathie Creagh, one of Daniel Lightfoot’s first models in the 1980s, gave the eulogy.
Ms Creagh said Lightfoot was a “wild child” who as a teenager began sewing gorgeous garments in this parents’ garage in Eagle Junction.
“When he finished he would spray them with Chanel No.5,” she recalled.
Dianne Cant, long-running fashion manager of the RAQ Fashion Awards, said the superstar designer was well-mannered and always a joy to work with.
Friend Vaughan Keenan had the 200-strong crowd in stitches recounting some of Lightfoot’s antics, imitating perfectly his signature “hello, darl” drawl.
The service was organised by Lightfoot’s ex-wife and lifelong friend Suzie Lightfoot, who told The Courier-Mail she wanted to make it “a salute to his presence and style”.
“I want people to feel that again, because that was the impact he had on others – he made them feel special; he helped you present your best self,” said Ms Lightfoot, who split from Daniel in 1998 after eight years of marriage but the pair remained very close.
“I think he would have loved the tribute today,” she said.
She also arranged bagpipes and a Highland dance performance – a nod to Lightfoot’s championship dancing as a 10-year-old boy – and reprinted Daniel Lightfoot garment labels, adding his birth and death years, to accompany a piece of couture lace for guests to take away as a memento.
Daniel Lightfoot Studios was forced into liquidation after an ex-employee was convicted of fraud in 2013.
Lightfoot reopened a boutique in the Brisbane Arcade a few years later, but it was destroyed by a storm.
He then attempted a return to the industry in mid-2020, but Covid-19 lockdowns scuppered his plans.
Daniel Lightfoot was laid to rest alongside his late mother Betty in a private ceremony at Pinnaroo Cemetery, Bridgeman Downs.
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Originally published as Fashion designer Daniel Lightfoot farewelled by friends and family in Brisbane
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