UBIQUITY: A 60-Year Celebration of Carla Zampatti
In May 2025, Carla Zampatti marked a defining milestone: 60 years of timeless design, powerful silhouettes, and an enduring presence across the Australian fashion and business scene. Presented at Australian Fashion Week, our anniversary show, Ubiquity, was both a tribute and a declaration. A tribute to the extraordinary women who have worn Carla Zampatti across generations; and a declaration that Australian fashion, led by heritage and propelled by innovation, continues to shape culture and identity.
The title Ubiquity reflects the way Carla Zampatti has become interwoven into the lives of Australian women, from boardrooms to ballrooms, from political milestones to family celebrations. The show featured 60 looks that spanned archival references and modern interpretations, each honouring the brand’s signature codes: refined tailoring, graceful strength, and unmistakable sophistication.
In a powerful tribute to the influence of Carla Zampatti, original designs from 14 of Australia’s most visionary designers were showcased: Michael Lo Sordo, Pip Edwards, Toni Maticevski, Christopher Esber, Romance Was Born, Gail Sorronda, Kit Willow, Akira Isogawa, Jordan Gogos, Alix Higgins, Grace Lillian Lee, Mariam Seddiq, Beare Park, and Bianca Spender. Each designer presented a piece inspired by the legacy of Carla Zampatti, a gesture that speaks to the brand’s lasting impact on Australian fashion.
You can explore the full runway collection, including each designer’s look, here.
As a second-generation fashion house, we are proud to carry forward this legacy with reverence and responsibility. Ubiquity was not only a celebration of the past six decades, it was a statement of what’s still to come.
The Carla Zampatti Scholarship – Australian Multicultural Foundation
Established in honour of Carla Zampatti’s enduring commitment to empowering women and championing multiculturalism, the Carla Zampatti Scholarship, delivered in partnership with the Australian Multicultural Foundation, forms a key part of her living legacy. The scholarship is awarded annually as part of the Ethical Business Awards and supports young women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to pursue their business and entrepreneurial aspirations.
Carla was a trailblazer—arriving in Australia as a non-English speaking child and rising to become one of the country’s most celebrated designers and businesswomen. Her belief in hard work, resilience, and inclusion was reflected not just in her designs, but in the culture she fostered in her business. The scholarship recognises this spirit and seeks to honour it by investing in the next generation of changemakers—young women who, like Carla, are determined to make their mark while staying true to their values.
The award is designed to highlight the powerful intersection of ethics, entrepreneurship, and diversity—supporting women who are not only building businesses, but doing so with purpose and integrity. Each recipient embodies the qualities Carla valued most: courage, creativity, and a commitment to uplifting others.
The 2025 winner, Yuliya Lozovyk, is a shining example of these values in action.
Through this scholarship, Carla’s legacy continues to grow—not only in memory, but in meaningful impact for generations to come.
Carla Zampatti x Lindy Lee 2023
In 2023, Carla Zampatti collaborated with renowned Chinese-Australian artist Lindy Lee to create "The Art of Women" collection—a powerful fusion of fashion and fine art that celebrated the creative contributions of women from multicultural backgrounds. This collaboration was a tribute to Carla Zampatti’s legacy as a trailblazer who championed both women's empowerment and cultural diversity.
The collection featured digitally transformed prints of Lee’s evocative “Rain and Fire” drawings, which were reimagined by Carla Zampatti’s then creative director, Karlie Ungar, into flowing silk garments. Lee also contributed a unique artwork for the collection’s launch runway show by burning and piercing silk, creating intricate patterns of light and shadow. This process highlighted the elemental themes of fire and water that resonate throughout her practice.
Pieces such as the Fierce Dragon Silk Gown and the Water Drips Dress exemplified the collection’s blend of strength and elegance, mirroring the shared ethos of both Carla and Lindy: that art and fashion can be powerful platforms for cultural storytelling. The collaboration was not only a creative triumph but also a meaningful continuation of Carla Zampatti’s mission to elevate women’s voices through design.
A striking feature of the 60th Anniversary Runway Show was Lindy Lee’s monumental sculpture Secret World of a Starlight Ember, which stands outside the Museum of Contemporary Art, providing a powerful backdrop and symbolic link between art, fashion, and legacy.
Carla Zampatti: Powerhouse Exhibition 2022
In 2022, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney unveiled a landmark retrospective, Zampatti: Powerhouse, celebrating the life, style, and indelible legacy of one of Australia’s most iconic designers. Spanning six decades of design, business, and cultural impact, the exhibition explored Carla Zampatti’s extraordinary journey from Italian immigrant to pioneering fashion entrepreneur.
Curated with deep personal insight and historical significance, the exhibition featured over 100 garments drawn from the Powerhouse collection and private archives—highlighting Zampatti’s signature tailoring, sculptural elegance, and timeless silhouettes. The pieces charted her evolution from early 1960s modernism to the confident, empowering aesthetic that became synonymous with the Carla Zampatti name.
Beyond fashion, the exhibition explored Carla’s influence on Australia’s cultural and social fabric—showcasing her roles as a business leader, board member, philanthropist, and champion for women and multicultural communities. Through personal objects, archival footage, and testimonials from political, artistic, and business leaders, Powerhouse paid tribute to her unique position at the intersection of creativity and civic leadership.
The exhibition was not only a celebration of design excellence, but a moving reflection on a woman who reshaped Australia’s fashion landscape and paved the way for generations of women to follow.
Carla Zampatti Arts and Culture Medal
In March 2022, the NSW Premier announced the inaugural Carla Zampatti Arts and Culture Medal at the Premier’s Harmony Dinner. This award recognises the achievements of an individual who has promoted cultural understanding, and artistic endeavours within or between communities of different cultural and/or linguistic backgrounds.
Carla Zampatti was a passionate Italian, but she was also a very patriotic Australian. She represents the very best of Australia. She arrived as a child, a non-English-speaking post-war immigrant. She worked hard and eventually became an icon for immigrants, women and the arts. The international media acknowledgements after her death owed less to her fashion and business skills than to her extraordinary success story from such unlikely beginnings. It is an honour that she has been recognised by the NSW Premier in this way, both with her inclusion on the Honour Roll and the annual Carla Zampatti Medal for Arts and Culture.
The Carla Zampatti Arts and Cultural Medal will continue to positively impact the community in the years ahead by fostering new talent encouraging designers to follow their dreams and show both women and migrants that they can achieve anything if they put their mind to it.
The Carla Zampatti Runway
Carla's ground-breaking contribution to the Australian Fashion industry over her 56-year career was recently recognised at Australian Fashion Week 2021 with a runaway named in her honour.
Named in perpetuity, the Carla Zampatti Runway was launched by the Honourable Julie Bishop on May 31 at Sydney’s Carriageworks.
Carla loved the magic of a runway show - she knew it pushed her creatively, and that is why she did it. She loved the collaboration - the wonderful musicians, makeup artists, models, hair stylist, staging support, stylists, PR – it was such an orchestration. And she loved how proud her team were to see their work on show.
And just like Carla did every Australian Fashion Week, we too look forward to seeing the inspirational designs the Carla Zampatti Runway will display in the years to come.
The Carla Zampatti Foundation
The Carla Zampatti Foundation was established in 2012 to honour and carry forward the enduring legacy of Carla Zampatti—an iconic Australian designer, businesswoman, and advocate for women and multicultural communities. The Foundation was created by her family and close collaborators in the wake of he r passing, as a way to institutionalise Carla’s lifelong commitment to empowering women, celebrating diversity, and supporting the arts.
Guided by Carla’s visionary spirit, the Foundation exists to support initiatives that reflect her values: opportunity through education, inclusion through representation, and excellence through creativity. Its mission is to uplift the next generation of women—particularly those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds—who are pursuing careers in business, fashion, design, and the arts.
One of the Foundation’s cornerstone programs is the Carla Zampatti Scholarship, delivered in partnership with the Australian Multicultural Foundation as part of the Ethical Business Awards. The scholarship offers financial support, mentorship, and visibility to young women from emerging migrant communities who show entrepreneurial promise and a commitment to ethical leadership.
The Foundation also supports exhibitions, public initiatives, and collaborations that highlight the role of women in shaping Australia’s cultural and economic future—ensuring that Carla’s passion for beauty, inclusion, and progress continues to inspire for generations to come.
In everything it does, the Carla Zampatti Foundation upholds the belief that with courage, creativity and opportunity, women can lead transformative change across every field.
