This was published 9 months ago
Kaftan queen Camilla Franks buys Bondi landmark home for $12.5m
By Lucy Macken
Kaftan queen Camilla Franks is returning to her Bondi roots, snapping up a landmark residence on one of the suburb’s largest privately-held blocks for about $12.5 million.
The high-end house purchase comes just months after billionaires Andrew and Nicola Forrest announced a minority shareholding in the global fashion powerhouse, Camilla, through their shared investment vehicle Tattarang.
Gnal Loa is a five-bedroom Federation house set on 1015 square metres, making it one of the suburb’s largest privately held blocks.Credit: Domain
Camilla’s purchase comes just weeks after fellow Australian fashion industry leader Simone Zimmermann settled on a $30 million house purchase down the road and in the wake of a $1.75 billion investment in the Zimmermann label by a US private equity firm.
“I honestly never thought I would ever leave my beautiful Woollahra sanctuary,” Franks said in a statement.
“Villa Camilla is filled with so many magical memories, and I will be so sad to say goodbye to her. But this past week the universe had different plans for me. Everything fell into place. The calling ... the energy was drawing me back to my roots in Bondi.
Camilla Franks opened her first store in Bondi in 2004.Credit: Nic Walker
“This is a new chapter for [my daughter] Luna and I. I’m so excited to create new memories in this 1900s beauty. She has charm, personality and history.”
Franks purchased the Federation house, called Gnal Loa, on Tuesday night, from Pensiri and Ben Scott, the latter of whom is a partner at Barrenjoey Capital and chair of the Australian Rugby Foundation.
“The name of this property – I’ve been told – means ‘the sitting spot’ and I love that,” Franks said. “The gardens feel like I’m in the Southern Highlands, but the sea is on my doorstep ... it just felt right. It felt like home.”
The house was listed in October, but never sold, and was relisted a week ago with PPD’s Alexander Phillips, who promptly sold it. An independent source put the sale result at $12.5 million.
Phillips declined to comment on the sale, but word of Franks’ purchase surfaced on Wednesday morning soon after the home was marked as sold on property portals.
The Bondi house has been renovated throughout in the past three years while owned by Pensiri and Ben Scott.Credit: Domain
The five-bedroom house on 1015 square metres last traded in 2021 for $10.1 million when the Scotts were recently returned expats from the United States. Ben Scott sits on the board of the Keith Murdoch-established American Australian Association.
The house was renovated in the almost three years the Scotts owned it, with newly landscaped Myles Baldwin Design gardens and approval for a redesign by Kelvin Ho, of Akin Atelier.
Franks founded her eponymous label 20 years ago, and it has surged in appeal in luxury overseas markets in recent years, in part thanks to the 2020 cult-hit television series The White Lotus.
Camilla chief executive Jane McNally told this masthead in January that the Forrests’ investment comes after a period of accelerated growth in the post-pandemic market, with about 40 per cent of its sales now generated overseas.
Camilla now has 25 retail boutiques in Australia and the United States, and another opening in New Jersey on Thursday, as well as hundreds of stockists across 65 countries.
Prestige agents are already circling Franks’ Woollahra home, which she has owned since 2016.