Italian elegance met Australian multiculturalism at last Wednesday's Powerhouse Museum event, where the exhibition celebrating Italian-Australian fashion icon Carla Zampatti first opened.

The designer, who tragically passed away after falling down the stairs during a performance of Opera Australia's La Traviata in Sydney on April 3, 2021, was born in Italy and settled with her family in Western Australia in 1950.

After moving to Sydney in her early twenties, she produced her first small fashion collection in 1965. Two years later she launched her collection nationally, and in 1970 founded Carla Zampatti Pty Ltd.

Zampatti has left a legacy of timeless elegance to the Australian fashion world - a refined, eclectic and sophisticated style, capable of playing a decisive role in significant moments in the lives of many women.

“The NSW Government is proud to support the first retrospective of Australian fashion icon Carla Zampatti at the home of Australian fashion, the Powerhouse Museum, in Ultimo. This spectacular exhibition is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the State's cultural calendar,” said Arts Minister Ben Franklin.

Iconic garments worn by Australian women featured in the exhibition include former Prime Minister Julia Gillard's jacket, worn when she addressed US Congress in 2011; the white jacket worn by Christine Holgate when she spoke at the Australia Post Inquiry in April 2021; the red pantsuit worn by Linda Burney for her official parliamentary portrait in 2019.

The exhibition also features some 40 garments on loan from Zampatti's rarely seen early design work from the 1960s to the 1990s, along with the stories of the Australian women who wore them.

Also on display is a 1985 Ford Laser that Zampatti co-designed, claiming at the time to have “made it as bold as possible”. The car was a success, and the designer was asked back to co-design the 1987 Ford Laser and the larger Ford Meteor.

Other highlights of the exhibition include the dress worn by Princess Mary of Denmark for her official royal portrait in 2015, as well as personal items worn by Zampatti herself, and two large bronze busts of Dame Elisabeth Frink.

The exhibition will be open to the public until June 11, 2023, exhibiting the life and work of this esteemed designer to tourists and Sydneysiders alike.

Her extraordinary private, professional and public life is rendered in exquisite detail, anchored in Zampatti's signature designs, and brought to life with first-person reflections by the designer's clients, family, staff and friends.

Zampatti Powerhouse includes 100 designs from over 50 institutions, and over five decades of material, examining a pioneering career woman from the founding of her business in 1965 to her most recent work.

The show is an exciting fusion of two worlds that seem diametrically opposed, yet have so many things in common ― Italy and Australia, two nations with glaring historical differences, which embrace and accept their diversity by encouraging events that celebrate multiculturalism at its purest, such as this exhibition. The show is a win not only for the world of fashion, but also for cultural integration.

In collaboration with the Co.As.It. bilingual school in Sydney, specialised Italian-language tours of the Zampatti Powerhouse exhibition will be held on December 3 and 11.

"It is an incredible honour for Carla's design legacy to be displayed in a major exhibition here at the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo. The designer loved the magic of fashion: the big shows, listening to the personal stories of her clients; how her designs played a small part in the defining moments in the lives of many Australian women," recalled Alexander Schuman, managing director of the Carla Zampatti brand.

Zampatti's daughters have also been successful, both in the field of fashion, and beyond. Bianca Spender is a successful designer who, like her mother, prioritises Australian manufacturing. Allegra Spender, on the other hand, was elected member of Wentworth in the last federal election.

To accompany the exhibition, the Powerhouse Museum has published a book – Zampatti – which includes an editorial from the archive collection starring Zampatti's granddaughter, Brigid Schuman, and portraits of luminaries, such as Dame Quentin Bryce and Ita Buttrose, by Hugh Stewart.

The Powerhouse Museum is collaborating with cultural institutions and foundations supported by Zampatti to present live performances and programs celebrating her legacy not only as a designer, but also as a successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, patron of the arts and mentor.

Carla Zampatti's legacy will live on through her generosity and through the generations of designers, businessmen and women entrepreneurs who knew her, as well as those who joined forces to bring the Australian public this unique and exciting exhibition.