In the sporting world, we often hear about the "immortals" of this game or that. But what of fashion?
With a career spanning more than 55 years, and plenty of creative juice left in her seemingly bottomless reservoir, Carla Zampatti was the closest thing the Australian fashion industry had to a matriarch, a pioneer and an immortal, all rolled into one.
Carla Zampatti in her city store in 1992.Credit: David Porter
Even in her advanced years, when travel became more taxing and COVID-19 threatened her brand's very survival, she thrived, resting on her number-one life principle, her raison d'être: resilience.
Carla was not only resilient, but she was also a woman of great compassion, deep thought and dry humour. No one ever imagined she would not be around. And yet, here we are.
I first met Carla on the closing night of the 2016 Melbourne Fashion Festival. It was my birthday, so I nearly skipped the function but the opportunity to meet this giant of Australian fashion was too important to pass up.
In her trademark dark glasses and tailored jumpsuit - complete with a deep v-neck that belied any stereotypes about “dressing for your age” - I was immediately taken by her warmth and passion for the industry, as well as her ageless style. It’s somewhat bittersweet that, just two weeks ago, Carla led a list of Australia’s 10 best-dressed women in Sunday Life, this masthead’s Sunday magazine. Now, that decision feels even more poignant.
Carla Zampatti, photographed at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in 2015. Credit: Getty
In the five or so years since our first meeting, we would have many conversations, Carla occasionally veering off-script to dispense some advice on life and love. I’m so glad I still have many recordings of those interviews saved on my phone. I’m pretty sure last year she gently cautioned me not to leave having children too long, as only an Italian mother could.
In the early months of the pandemic, I was asked to profile Carla for the cover of Sunday Life to mark her 55th anniversary in business. While lockdown scuttled our plans for a lunch interview, over an hour on the phone we covered so much: the state of the industry, how it would recover, what women will want from fashion, and what made her most proud in her professional life.
Although she had dressed celebrities and royalty, it was the “ordinary” customers who gave Carla the resolve to persevere for more than half a century through recession, global crisis and personal strife. Through her clothes, Carla helped women find their power, from the 18-year-old high school graduate to the executive securing a promotion and the mother of the bride. She valued them all equally.
"Carla knew her brand for 56 years, she knew her customer; she was her brand, she was her customer," her longtime publicist and friend, Adam Worling, reflected after her passing.
In true form, Carla never wore anyone else's clothes, trying on her own samples to ensure she could, quite literally, walk in her customers' shoes. She knew the women who invested in her clothes could get in and out of a car with ease, or put a bag in an overhead locker without straining a seam.
Carla Zampatti with her daughters Bianca and Allegra Spender.
But, more than the clothes, Carla pioneered what it meant to be a working mother in 1970s’ Australia when such a thing was still a rarity, much less one who was single at the time (following her divorce from Leo Schuman). She told me last year that at the time she felt like an outsider, or judged unfavourably by others, when in fact she was unwittingly blazing a trail for a whole generation.
Throughout her life, Carla was a champion for women, the arts, her adopted home of Australia and the education of the next generation of designers. I foolishly once asked her how she does it all, to which she replied, deadpan: "Full speed or full stop."
But really, Carla's entire life philosophy can be summed up through this quote from the Sunday Life cover story: "It's such a short time we are on this earth and if you don't maximise it, what are you doing?"
Carla maximised hers, and then some. Nowhere was this more evident than during COVID-19, when Carla refused to let it defeat her professionally or personally, despite the obvious toll it had taken. In our conversations, she never feared for her business but only her children, grandchildren and her staff, who she regarded as family.
In our final conversation, in February, Carla had an optimistic lilt in her voice. The worst of the pandemic seemingly over, Carla was looking forward to life slowly returning to normal, whatever that looks like. It was clear she was far from done. She wanted to see a time when sequins would once more reign over sweats for her customers. And when it did, she was ready to dress them.
Get a little more outta life
Start your week with practical tips and expert advice to help you make the most of your personal health, relationships, fitness and nutrition. Sign up to our Live Well newsletter sent every Monday.