'What was most poignant to me was there was absolutely no question about her retiring, her handing the business over. She was very full of life, she was very excited about what she was achieving”
editor-at-large, Juliet Rieden, who wrote the feature for the magazine, had been sitting near Zampatti on the fateful night at the opera. She says the veteran designer’s last words to her were conveying her excitement about the forthcoming story, which focused on family and the connection between the women across three generations.
During the interview, Zampatti spoke about the challenges of being a single mother in her 20s while trying to get her iconic brand off the ground, her second marriage, to politician-turned-diplomat John Spender, and Ken Howison, the Sydney doctor with whom she found love and companionship in the last two years of her life.
Reflecting on her style of parenting, Zampatti recounted how she instilled her strong work ethic in her three children from a young age.