The search for missing Carla Zampatti treasures

Designer, mentor, philanthropist … Carla Zampatti was many things, but archivist failed to make the list of her achievements. Following the shock death on April 3 last year of the woman who built an empire on sleek evening wear and trim suiting for the Australian woman, Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum is honouring her with a retrospective exhibition to open on November 25.

Now it just has to find some clothes.

“As fabulous as Carla was at keeping pieces, she didn’t keep everything,” says fashion authority Kellie Hush, trustee for the Powerhouse and an adviser to the Carla Zampatti business. “We’ve got big gaps in the archive. I like to think that she wore her samples to death.”

The Powerhouse already has 60 pieces ready for the show, having been invited by Zampatti to raid her closets before her death at age 78, one week after she was knocked unconscious in a fall at an outdoor Opera Australia performance on Sydney Harbour. Following the outpouring of stories from women recalling the importance of Zampatti designs at milestones in their lives, the Powerhouse has been inspired to ask the public to increase their offering by sharing treasured purchases.

“We are asking Australian women to go deep into their wardrobes and see if they have some great pieces, which we will put alongside Carla’s personal archive. This really was something that grew out of that incredible outpouring of love and stories, like Melbourne grandmother Yvonne Dite and her dress from the ’60s.”

Along with dresses, Ms Hush is hoping to unearth signature handbags and colourful pieces from the ’80s that never made it to Zampatti’s own coathangers.

“She did say that she had some really bad designs in the ’80s, but I don’t believe her,” Ms Hush said.

Also, on the Powerhouse wish list is the Carla Zampatti Ford Laser, first released in 1985 with a second collection in 1987, featuring two-tone paint, a coloured grille and logo badging, and a bonus keyholder and purse.