Australian fashion designer Carla Zampatti dies after fall
Iconic fashion designed Carla Zampatti in 2019. Photo: AAP
Australian fashion designer Carla Zampatti has died in hospital, aged 78, a week after she fell at an at opera premiere.
She was knocked unconscious after falling down on the bottom two steps of a staircase at Mrs Macquarie’s Point on the opening night of La Traviata.
Born in Italy in 1942, Ms Zampatti migrated to Australia in 1950 at the age of nine, setting up her fashion famous label at only 24.
In a statement, her family said she was Australia’s most successful and enduring fashion designer.
“Carla has long been celebrated for making Australian women feel confident and elegant through her exceptional design, tailoring and understanding of the modern woman,” the statement read.
“A champion of Australian women and a multicultural success story, she continued to thrive as a businesswoman through enormous radical and social change, designing clothes for women fighting for liberation through the women’s rights movement in the 1960s to empowering women today in leadership, the workplace, in their home and at major life events.”
Her designs have been worn by some of Australia’s most influential women, including Princess Mary of Denmark, Julia Gillard, Nicole Kidman and Gladys Berejiklian.
Founding editor of Cleo magazine Ita Buttross told ABC News that Zampatti was a trailblazer for Australian fashion.
A model walks the Gala Runway wearing a Carla Zampatti outfit during Melbourne Fashion Festival in 2020. Photo: AAP
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-with AAP