Kit Willow back into fashion stakes with KitX

Reborn fashionista Kit Willow has re-emerged after her fallout with wealthy Apparel Group principals John Marshall and Andrew Michael, but this time with a little help from other wealthy and powerful friends.

The designer sold her eponymous label to the group, whose stable also includes JAG, Sportscraft and Saba, in 2011 but was then ousted as creative director at the end of last year.

Now Willow, who is married to Mark Podgornik, son of late property developer and horse man Floyd Podgornik, is back with her new label KitX (the X represents the future) launched this week by David Jones.

Floyd will be remembered for his high-profile ownership of Florentino’s on Collins Street and his public affair with mistress Carolyn Palliardi. After Podgornik’s death, Palliardi was embroiled in a bitter battle with Podgornik’s wife Lorraine over the developer’s assets.

Willow and her husband control half the new fashion business, while adviser and accountant to the privately wealthy, Lawrence Myers, has 32.7 per cent. Laini Liberman and family patriarch Boris Liberman have 13 per cent of the label, while Melbourne film producer and investor Ricci Swart has a bit over 4 per cent.

Kit’s brother-in-law Andrew, formerly a banker at Merrills but now taking up space at Baillieu Holst, is married to Chloe Kimberley, who is the daughter of Just Jeans founder Craig Kimberley, so there is plenty of rag trade expertise to draw from in the wider family circle.

Watching it all unfold from afar will be former Apparel Group boss Daniel Bracken, who now has his feet under the desk at Myer. His replacement, Adrian Jones, who’s got the old Willow to protect, will be taking a much keener view.

Child’s play

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke’s benefactor, and key party fundraiser, Nick Bolkus has friends all over the world. Well, China, at least.

The former senator for South Australia knows the folk that Burke has been hanging around with in the PRC very well.

Not only are 123 Childcare principals Anthony (Wai-Lun) Chan and Ian (Yui) Tang important historical donors to the ALP, they are also major investors in two-bit Aussie wannabe coalminer Coalbank, where Bolkus also happens to be deputy chairman.

123 Childcare, which boasts former Nats leader Mark Vaile as chairman, is so exciting that Burke has been to visit it twice in the past 10 months. He thinks it’s a great investment opportunity for Australia.

Chan also has friends in high places. For almost 20 years, he worked for Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho, running his property development and investment activities.

When Chan donated to the party so did Ho, from the same address. Sadly, Ho is banned from running casinos in NSW. When James Packer’s Crown got the Barangaroo casino licence, it had to pinky swear that Ho wasn’t on board due to concerns about Triads working his Macau gambling dens.

Chan is chairman of the listed Coalbank alongside Bolkus, who paid for Burke’s trips to Chan and Tang’s daycare operation.

Completing the circle, Coalbank is majority-owned by Hong Kong’s Loyal Strategic Investment, whose directors include ... Chan and Tang.

Who ultimately owns Loyal Strategic is a mystery.

Meanwhile, as the storm around Burke’s taxpayer-funded jaunts continued, Vaile, who is safely out of politics, had his feet up in business class on the 10am Virgin shuttle from Sydney to Melbourne yesterday.

The Virgin director was in row two, almost at the pointy end of the plane. But not quite.

The Catalano code

As Fairfax’s Antony Catalano snuggled into the passenger seat on the first day of a 16-month driving ban, he would have had plenty of time to leaf through its employee code of conduct.

He might look for help on how to deal with his conviction for drink-driving, secured by Victorian cops despite the best efforts of his technically minded former special forces barrister, Peter Billings.

Being busted for blowing .08 isn’t specifically covered in the code, but there are a helpful set of questions to ask yourself in a sticky situation. Like: “Would I be proud of what I have done?”, “Is it legal?” and “Do my actions put anyone’s health and safety at risk?” Driving a Range Rover around in the middle of the night after a 10-hour beer binge might not be safe, legal, or something to be proud of.

The code also asks: “What would happen if my conduct was reported in a rival publication?”

A good question, answered by the Herald Sun with the headline “DODGY TICKER, LOTS OF LIQUOR”. That’s a reference to Catalano’s claim to cops when asked for a breath test that he was having chest pains, the second time he’s done so.

Margin Call wanted to ask Fairfax whether the code meant the Cat would be sent to the doghouse — and whether he’s healthy enough for the rigours of the job or even an IPO of Domain. But a spokesman didn’t return repeated calls, while boss Greg Hywood and his chair Roger Corbett were silent.

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