Carla Zampatti creative director Karlie Ungar takes brand into a new era
Her diminutive frame wouldn’t suggest a generous shoe size, but for newly appointed creative director Karlie Ungar, Carla Zampatti has left very substantial footwear to fill.
Her diminutive frame wouldn’t suggest a generous shoe size, but for newly appointed creative director Karlie Ungar, Carla Zampatti has left very substantial footwear to fill.
“They’re huge shoes,” Ungar affirms. “Huge, huge shoes.”
Tonight, the former head designer will step on to the Carla Zampatti A/W’23 runway during its finale, marking a new era for the almost 60-year-old Australian heritage brand.
If last year’s focus was honouring its founder and celebrating the indelible legacy she left before her passing, this year Ungar, chief executive Alex Schuman and their team are pouring their energy into realising a new vision for the Carla Zampatti label.
“The Powerhouse (exhibition) was an initiative that was undertaken by the business when I came into it, so we saw that come into fruition at the end of last year which was an amazing process for me to go through and understand the breadth and depth of Carla’s legacy,” Ungar says.
Having headed up the design teams for top local brands such as Saba and Cue, Ungar’s promotion to creative director should come as no surprise.
“My background has probably prepared me more than I think, to be honest,” she admits. Despite pivoting to interior design prior to her appointment as Carla Zampatti head designer in 2021, Ungar says the pattern room has always been her ultimate happy place.
“It’s just next level, particularly if you love tailoring and the craftsmanship of clothes … using your hands and those time-honoured techniques of tailoring and craftsmanship; for me, just even on a personal geek level, I love a pattern room,” she says.
Almost 200 guests will descend on the basement of the Carla Zampatti Kent St headquarters on Wednesday night to witness not just the first official Carla Zampatti collection show since Zampatti’s death in April 2021, but a new chapter for the brand.
Ungar anticipates the crowd will be surprised by what plays out on the runway.
“It’s probably not the Zampatti show that everyone knows,” she muses.
For Zampatti’s son and company chief executive Alex Schuman, the highlight will be the unveiling of a limited-edition collection designed in collaboration with Brisbane-born artist Lindy Lee.
The creative partnership was borne from the installation of Lee’s work, One Bright Pearl, at Double Bay’s Blackburn Gardens, of which The Carla Zampatti Foundation was the principal donor.
“That was really Lindy Lee celebrating Carla in her love language, and it dawned on us to celebrate Lindy Lee in our love language, which is the clothes,” he explained.
“When Mum passed away she was the best ambassador we’d ever had, and my sisters, Bianca and Allegra, and I have really thought a lot about it and we’ve re-established the brand around its shared values; the empowerment of women, support for the arts and championing multiculturalism.
“It’s hard to imagine anyone who better represents our three core values than Lindy Lee.”
Lee – whose work explores and interprets her cultural heritage and personal history as the daughter of Chinese immigrants – never met Zampatti. Despite this, Lee says Zampatti’s efforts in paving the way for younger generations of working female creatives impacted her own career.
“She made a huge difference to working women in Australia,” Lee says. “She was a trailblazer, and for me a sort of icon when I was growing up.
“I never owned a Zampatti dress because it was beyond me (financially), but she was absolutely there at a time when I was growing up when there were very few female role models who were creative.”
The result of the collaboration is an 11-piece collection featuring original prints and metal hardware inspired by Lee’s work in silk, paper and metal. Lee describes the project as “a wonderful meeting of openness and receptivity”.
“I’d love to say it was really dramatic and exciting and there were ups and downs, but there weren’t,” she admits. Instead, there was a feeling of resonance and fluidity to the project. “Karlie had already seen some of my water and fire drawings and there was something about their capacity to be translated into silk,” she adds.
Lee recalls the moment she received “metres and metres” of silk from Ungar, which she and her team began to painstakingly singe to create one of the key prints in the range.
“My wonderful team just roll their eyes at me, as they do, but they helped me to do it … (and) I can say they really loved the experiment with silk, and that’s a wonderful thing as an artist because that experience gets folded into the repertoire I can work with,” she says.
With some prints reaching six metres in length, Ungar said there was a uniqueness to almost every piece in the collection.
“Each is going to be very unique, and it does really reflect this special quality about both women’s work,” she says. “I know it’s going to be a very personal purchase as the spray and the repeat and the cut of each garment – although they’re the same garment – the way the colouration of the print ombres will be unique to each.”
Having worked on collections with the likes of Polaroid sunglasses, Ford, Romance Was Born, Glomesh and Specsavers, Zampatti herself was no stranger to collaboration. The coming together of minds to create something unique is something Lee also appreciates.
“I love collaboration; if you do it in the right spirit it opens so much up,” she says. “Forget your ego … I feel as if I function better when it’s about this whole activity that’s going on and we’re all helping to make it. The heat’s not on me, which can sometimes be painful, but the heat’s on everybody and the joy is for everybody.”
Ungar said it was hopefully the first of many creative partnerships for the brand. “Cross-collaboration really interests and excites me, so I think having Lindy there and her already having an existing relationship with the business, we did want to move forward and take on exciting collaborations and new chapters, and she really was someone who was in the frame,” Ungar explains. “But at the time I didn’t know her personally, and I must say I came out the other side of the collaboration and it’s been a joy; she’s just phenomenal.”
Aside from a one-off collaboration with now defunct brand Shoes of Prey, Carla Zampatti has left footwear largely alone, but Ungar hints this could change tonight, with both shoes and accessories among the new categories the brand is exploring.
“There are quite a few facets to the presentation,” she explains.
“It’s really exciting, being able to move forward in the business across different categories and having a real position in terms of collection and (deciding) what actually is a mainstay and how do we roll that out each season.”
While there will always be excitement around what’s new, Ungar is certain loyal Zampatti devotees will feel the collection still reflects the classic, timeless style its founder cemented within the brand over her six decades in business.
“This moment really is all about a continuum of the brand, and very much a celebration of its 60-year existence,” she says. “It’s a combination of the strong archive from a trusted brand, but also trying to reframe it.
“It’s still very archival and celebrational around those real Zampatti hero pieces, but there are more facets to it. We just hope that everyone loves it.”