Sydney Socialites – Who is Who In the Harbour City Social Zoo?
Gossip columns are always full of Sydney “socialites”, but what is a socialite in 2023? More importantly, who are the faces that make the exclusive party guest lists? And, why?
Confidential
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The Harbour City plays host to dozens of parties each week, with corporates big and boutique shelling out megabucks to dress socialites in their wares and put cocktails in their manicured claws, and on the ‘gram.
Socialite (noun): a person who is well known in fashionable society and is fond of social activities and entertainment.
As Paris Hilton, the original socialite who made the blueprint for the $21 billion influencing industry we have today wrote: “Know your worth, girls. You’re not lucky to be at the party, the party is lucky to have you.”
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a red carpet snap of the right person in the right brand is worth thousands of dollars.
Here, Confidential takes a look at Sydney’s most sought after invitees and what they bring to the party that warrants free-flowing alcohol, comped VIP tickets, and lavish goodie bags galore. To be fair, this column could have included hundreds of names – who would you have put on this list?
BILLY MITCHELL AND MICHAEL PORTER
Beauty entrepreneur Michael Porter is entrenched in Sydney’s social set, but you’re unlikely to catch him out for lewd behaviour. The 29-year-old Four Seasons Condoms heir recently married high-profile fashion publicist Billy Mitchell. Porter is co-founder of beauty label Skin Control.
While his family might make their moolah from the colourful world of condoms and lubricants, the north shore-based Porter family is understood to be ultra-conservative.
However, the three-day-long Italian wedding extravaganza of this duo was anything but.
Victoria’s Secret model Bridget Malcolm presided over the nuptials at Lake Como in July, with Porter wearing custom Tom Ford while Mitchell opted for custom Giorgio Armani, the fashion house he represents.
Guests included bikini influencer Tash Oakley and new husband Theo Chambers, the pair having just married themselves the week prior in Capri.
Also there was Nadia Fairfax, stylists Caroline Tran and Elliott Garnaut, Venroy label owner Sean Venturi, Aje designer Adrian Norris and Byron Bay designer and influencer Olive Cooke. Married At First Sight reality star Martha Kalifatidis was there, as was Dany Sanby, a former contestant from Tim Robards’ season of The Bachelor.
JOSHUA PENN AND HUSBAND BENJAMIN PALMER
Son of Lowes Menswear heiress Linda Penn and her dentist husband David, Joshua Penn and partner Benjamin Palmer are dedicated to giving back to the community through their various charity pursuits.
Joshua and Linda Penn are Co-Chairs of the Gold Dinner, one of the biggest charity events in Sydney that raises millions of dollars for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation (SCHF).
At this year’s event alone, they helped raise $19.2 million, of which $5 million came from Gina Rinehart and $4 million was donated by Linda herself.
Also on the Gold Dinner Committee are James Auswild, Sophie Curtis (sister-in-law of Roxy Jacenko), Alessandra Eddy, Craig Carracher, Alina Barlow, Monika Tu, Benita Kam,Bernadette Nassif, Katie Evans, Adrian Fonseca, Tara Rushton and Kristy Nassif Elias.
CAMERON MACDONALD
Property developer Cameron MacDonald famously rented out his Mosman mansion to Justin Bieber when he was touring the country. Former model turned luxury property investor MacDonald sold the property in 2021 for $21.5 million.
CAMILLA FRANKS
Fashion designer Camilla Franks is often overseas but when in town, she is a must invite to any luxe event. A survivor in an often fickle scene, Franks is timeless and effortlessly cool. She is married to artist, JP Jones.
NIKKI CAMPBELL AND SOPHIE COOTE
Co-founders of SIR the label, the pair generally keep a low profile but are friends with some of the top movers and shakers in town. It was a case of right time, right strategy for style house Sir when it launched just as Instagram and online shopping aligned. Founded by the pair in 2014, SIR garnered international acclaim for its focus on wardrobe essentials and minimalist silhouettes.
MICHELLE GREY AND SUSAN ARMSTRONG
Michelle Grey and Susan Armstrong co-founded Sydney’s Arts Matter, dedicated to fostering the arts and cultural pursuits from music to fashion, film, theatre, dance and literature. Grey is an ex-Ascham girl who lived in New York for a spell, while Armstrong is married to early 2000s Goodbar DJ, Ian Spicer.
JESS PECORARO
Stylist Jess Pecoraro is sister of model and fashionista Roberta Pecoraro. She has dressed some of the biggest name local celebrities (like Jesinta Franklin and Delta Goodrem) and is a must invite to any fashion event.
KRISTIN FISHER
Mother of two Kristin Fisher is the celebrity eyebrow artist to the stars who knows who is who and where to be seen. Based in Double Bay, some of Australia’s biggest names are her regular clients.
CLEMENTINE HURLEY
Creative director and stylist Clementine Hurley is well connected with all the top and up and coming Aussie fashion designers, particularly through her work at The Woolmark Company.
IMOGEN MELLER
General manager of shoe label SENSO, Imogen Meller is a business woman behind one of Australia’s biggest international fashion exports. Meller keeps a low profile but pops up occasionally at events, most likely to support a charity. Will. I.Am, of Black Eyed Peas fame, is godfather to her son, Astro. SENSO shoes have been worn by everyone from Beyonce to Selena Gomez, Fergie and Chiara Ferragni.
ALYCE TRAN
Alyce Tran burst on to the scene as the co-founder of monogrammed leatherwoods company The Daily Edited.
The business grew so popular that Tran was able to quit her job as a lawyer. Her designs were seen dangling from famous hands such as Lara Worthington and Hailey Baldwin.
She sold the business to move on to new ventures, starting hugely successful plate and servingware business, In The Roundhouse.
Sister of stylist Caroline Tran, she also runs LTK with Anna Wintour’s former Australian assistant, Rey Vakili.
STENMARK TWINS
The Stenmark twins Jordan and Zac are all about balance now that they’re in their thirties.
The supermodels and entrepreneurs, 31, launched their neuroscience-led sleep technology Dreamers in April, also hinting at another “big project” beyond the realm of fashion.
That said, the Bondi-based brothers are regulars on celebrity guest lists to exclusive parties, and typically attend as one another’s date.
They live between multiple European countries, and Sydney, telling Confidential that they’re both single, booked and busy.
“We have a bunch of travel coming up to Europe, specifically Milan, for their fashion week, and then onto New York,” Jordan said.
Zac was previously linked to American actor Tessa Thompso, dating the Hollywood star while she filmed Thor in Australia in 2021.
The identical twins are household names both in Australia and abroad, having been at the forefront of the international male fashion scene for the past decade.
LEIGH DOLE
Blow Bar Co. founder Leigh Dole has four human babies, and four business babies, the Bronte, Balmain, Sydney CBD & Coogee Beach locations of her up-market hairstyling salon.
“I typically attend awards, launches and openings. Being a busy mum of four (plus another on the way), it can be a challenge getting to all the events I want to get to,” Dole told Confidential.
“I attended the Mumpreneur Awards last week (taking home the One to Watch and Retail Services of the Year awards) and the David Jones Beauty Awards,” she said.
Dole launched her first salon at age 17 in Woollahra, but quickly realised traditional cuts and colours weren’t her passion. Making people feel good was.
One to watch in the entrepreneurial space, Dole revealed she has “significant growth plans,” including new stores and an international launch.
PAUL SIGNORELLI
Owner of Doltone House group of venues, Paul Signorelli is front and centre at some of the biggest charity events across town.
PIP EDWARDS
Perennial eastern suburbs ‘It’ girl Pip Edwards is a one-woman headline machine. In the age of the Instagram influencer, the P.E. Nation co-founder, 43, is a rare thing.
An old-school socialite. Headlines about the fashion designer are, and have always been, dominated by her boyfriends, bikinis, and body.
In her now infamous words regarding ex-boyfriend Michael Clarke’s Noosa fracas: “Not my circus”.
The single mother of teenage son Justice, 16, (who she shares with ex-partner Ksubi designer Dan Single) gets on and designs, represents, expands her multimillion-dollar fitness fashion empire.
Attending the likes of Rita Ora’s album launch party, and Ksubi’s birthday party for basketball star Patty Mills, she’s most likely to be found on the dancefloor rather than posing at the photowall.
Meanwhile, she’s the face of events like Witchery’s White Shirt Day, which she designed this year.
EMMA PILLEMER
Launching a jewellery brand at the height of the pandemic in 2020 is a big swing. But for high school graduate Emma Pillemer, it served as “escapism” that paid off tenfold.
Her playful party designs and enamel pops of colour became the darling of Gen Z celebrities, making Pillemer an overnight success. By 2021, Monday swimwear founder Natasha Oakley came on-board as an investor and CEO as the brand went global.
The pair met when Oakley used Pillemer’s family home as a location for a photo shoot.
Now in her third year as a bona fide designer, Pillemer made her debut at Australian Fashion Week with her namesake brand, Emma Pills.
Pillemer (in a Saint Laurent catsuit no less) and a cohort of models walked a makeshift runway at the designer’s home in Vaucluse, and the star-studded party coincided with her 21st birthday.
She is now tipped by industry insiders to reach a staggering $1.42 million in revenue by the end of 2023, and attends parties that align with her personal brand, such as Nique x Shevoque’s fashion event, and the Barbie x OPI party.
PALOMA GARCIA
Paloma Garcia is a left-wing social activist who owns Paloma Salon in Paddington. The mother of two trained under famed Synergy hair director, Sharon Maher, in the early 2000s.
NADIA FAIRFAX-WAYNE
Stylist, model and presenter are just a few of the hats luxe fashion influencer Fairfax wears, although she’s contemplating quitting social media because “it’s just so tacky now”.
The 34-year-old confirmed last month that she’s pregnant with her first child.
The news comes just over two years since the Sydney social identity married partner Michael Wayne in a lavish harbourside ceremony.
Fairfax-Wayne did not comment when approached by Confidential as she attended an Creed Spring Flower fragrance breakfast event at the Queen Victoria Building in the CBD in August.
The daughter of former rugby league and union star Russel Fairfax kept her pregnancy private, and only recently returned to Sydney from attending a series of Sydney society weddings in Europe.
She is understood to be around seven months pregnant.
She and Wayne were married at a celebrity-filled party at Swifts mansion in Darling Point on March 25, 2021.
A year later, in 2022, the couple celebrated their “matemoon” with a group of close friends at the famed Macakizi Hotel on the Aegean Sea in Turkey, a favoured destination for the likes of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.
Fairfax is one of the city’s most recognisable faces, best friends with the likes of Alyce Tran, Kate Waterhouse, Elliott Garnaut and Billy Mitchell.
She’s a regular at launch events for high-end Australian fashion, jewellery, and lifestyle brands such as Ksubi, Forever New, Creed fragrance, and charity fundraisers.
LIONEL AND LISA LEE
The owners of Bing Lee electronics are also avid fans of Ferrari, so may pop up at one of the car events too.
Having grown up in Fairfield in Western Sydney, the couple now live in Seaforth.
You may have heard him on the radio ads with his mum, Yenda. Lionel is a keen golfer, watch collector and car enthusiast. He is seen regularly at the Australian Golf Club.
Grandson of founder Bing Lee, Lionel took over operations of the family business from his father, Ken, in 2007.
TASH OAKLEY AND HUSBAND THEO CHAMBERS
From a popular blog page, ‘A Bikini a Day’ to a $63 million empire, Natasha Oakley’s co-owned swimwear brand, Monday, has a strong focus on embracing body positivity.
Recently-hitched Oakley and her husband Theo Chambers tied the knot on Capri Island in Italy, in the Sydney socialite wedding tour of Europe this June.
Although the couple are primarily based out of Los Angeles, they also purchased a matrimonial base in Bellevue Hill on the week of their nuptials, a 1950s ‘fixer upper’ for $17 million.
With 3.5 million Instagram followers, Oakley is one of the most successful influencers/entrepreneurs in the game. Using Monday’s success as a launch pad, she expanded her business interests to include The pilates Class fitness program, became CEO of Emma Pills, and accrued enough corporate endorsements to land her name on AFR’s Young Rich List in 2021.
“I don’t think my business would have been able to have existed without social media – it has played a huge role in where I am today,” she recently told 60 Minutes host Peter Stefanovic.
NICKY OATLEY
Nicky is no stranger to the finer things in life. This heiress of Australia’s winemaking and yacht-racing Oatley family works as the brand manager for Hamilton Island, a playground for the rich and famous. She often attends events with banker husband Jonathan Pearce.
JUSTIN HEMMES
The pandemic did nothing to dent billionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes’ confidence – in 2021 he spent almost $38 million buying Cheeky Monkey’s in Byron Bay and Norton’s Irish Pub in Leichhardt.
They have formed part of a $1.2 billion commercial and residential property empire that now includes more than 80 brands. He has taken on the catering at the Sydney Football Stadium and bought a “beach shack” in Byron Bay for $17 million.
With 26 DJs, a rumoured $1 million budget and a space theme, Hemmes’ annual Merivale staff party has become a coveted invite that takes place across the Ivy precinct in Sydney’s CBD.
When he’s not hosting, though, Hemmes, 50, and his model girlfriend Madeline Holtznagel, 26 (sister to supermodel Simone Holtznagel), usually tend towards black-tie affairs. Think: The Silver Party fundraiser for Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation (SCHF); and events hosted by Moet Chandon and Cartier.
MICHAEL ‘WIPPA’ WIPFLI & LISA WIPFLI
Having notched up 12 years on air together, there is not much going on around Sydney that Nova duo Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald and Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli don’t know about.
Actor and media personality Kate Ritchie joined the fold on their 96.9 breakfast show this year and nationally from 6pm weeknights.
Together, the trio are a formidable force. Wippa is known for his fun personality and boisterous sense of humour.
The popular radio presenter has spent a long career entertaining people on their weekday commutes and shares three kids with his wife, fashion influencer and socialite, Lisa. The couple have three children.
GEORGIA FOWLER AND NATHAN DALAH
Former Victoria’s Secret model Georgia Fowler has stepped back a bit from the Sydney scene since giving birth to her daughter, Dylan Aman, with Fishbowl co-founder Nathan Dalah last September, and announced recently she’s expecting her second child.
Dalah founded one of Australia’s most popular fast-food chains with his two university friends, opening a single healthy restaurant in Bondi in 2016. Fishbowl now grosses $60 million annually across its network of 30 stores and employs 450 staff.
Fowler’s older sister, Kate, was previously married to Sydney hospo king Justin Hemmes.
From her star turn on the coveted Victoria’s Secret runway, not once but three times, to fronting campaigns for Seafolly, Armani, and Chanel: NZ-born Fowler is both well-practised and utterly at home modelling bikinis, red carpet gowns, and race-day attire.
And while Fowlers’ two million loyal Instagram followers lap up each and every post, the 31-year-old is selective with what she shares, and whom she promotes.
Once her children are a little older, we’re sure to see her reclaim the limelight of the horse racing fashion world, and at events for only the most expensive vehicles, fragrances, and clothing lines.
NIC PESTALOZZI
The secret ingredient to Fishbowl’s success, according to Nic Pestalozzi, is putting everything back into the growth of the business.
In an interview with Kitchen Confidential last year, the co-founder said he didn’t consider himself to have made it, despite the group taking in $60 million in revenue.
“We still feel like we are starting out,” he said.
“We haven’t taken a cent out of the business. We don’t pay ourselves that much money.
“Everything goes back into the business. I think that’s why there have been no weird fights about money between the three of us. Of course, we’ve still had fun along the way. But we aren’t living the life of movie stars.”
The casual dining restaurant specialises in made-to-order salads with a Japanese style twist and was founded by uni student friends: Pestalozzi, Casper Ettelson and Nathan Dalah — the partner of top model Georgia Fowler.
As far as this column is aware, Pestalozzi is single, or very private.
JOHN SYMOND AND AMBER SYMOND
Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond, 76, is one of Australia’s richest men, with a reported net worth of $780 million.
He married Common Hours fashion label creative director Amber Symond, 49, in 2016. The couple’s four children from two previous marriages were the only ones to witness the marriage ceremony in his palatial $100 million Point Piper mansion.
Amber of course was previously married to Patrick Keating, son of former Australian prime minister Paul Keating.
DEBORAH SYMOND O’NEILL
Deborah Symond O’Neill, 33, is John’s eldest daughter and the founder of fashion retailer Mode Sportif. She lives with husband Ned O’Neill in Elizabeth Bay.
VICKI LEE
Long time BFF of Lara Worthington, artist Vicki Lee works with oil on canvas and oil on glass. Before making a name for herself with her art, Lee had a clothing label called My Pet Square that was then sold at General Pants. Lee is married to photographer Ted O’Donnell.
PAIGE CARMICHAEL
Paige Carmichael is the founder and director of “No-BS” marketing and PR business, Brand Side. According to her social media, she is “known for her honest reviews on travel and everyday outfits” and lives a “jet setter lifestyle working and living between Sydney / London and Noosa”.
EMMA METCALF
You could say producer, director and artist Emma Metcalf has her finger in many pies. The wife of Jimmy Niggles, the man behind the ‘million dollar beard’, together they are a formidable force for good.
CAROLINE GROTH
Wellness advocate and Bondi local Caroline Groth is passionate about sharing her experience as a health coach. She lends her support to brands she is deeply passionate about, and almost always in the health and wellness space.
TAYLA COHEN
Model and influencer Tayla Cohen is well connected. Her Instagram paints a pretty picture. From Sydney to Beverly Hills and the south of France, Cohen has made a name for herself on the scene as a ‘model’ and bikini babe ‘influencer’.
REAL HOUSEWIVES OF SYDNEY
With a second season of BINGE and Foxtel hit Real Housewives of Sydney set to launch over the coming weeks, we are set to see a whole lot more of the cast. All fabulous in their own right, that’s why we’ve included these women as a group. They are Krissy Marsh, Sally Obermeder, Terry Biviano, Caroline Evans, Victoria Montano, Katie Adams and Nicole O’Neil.
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