Now 50, Australia’s ‘Kaftan Queen’ is a two-decade veteran of the fashion realm. Franks’ newest collection is pushing the Camilla print house in a new direction, where Viennese majesty meets free-spirited romance.
Schonbrunn Palace is best known as the spectacular Baroque country home and hunting grounds of Austrian royalty. Just 20 minutes outside Vienna, Schoner Brunnen, as the estate was known in the 17th century, translates to ‘fair spring.’
To Camilla Franks, the founder and creative visionary of the fashion label that bears her first name, the gilded chambers of the Palace and the art nouveau movement that gave rise to Austria’s artistic renaissance are the sparks of inspiration for her latest collection.
The Bondi-born designer visited Vienna to immerse herself in the refined opulence of yesteryear and bring bohemian breeziness to her global print house’s spring range.
Sophisticated blacks, golden creams and garden greens dominate the collection. It is a loftier, more ethereal departure from the coat of arms, metallic crests and heavy gold embroidery that drove the Met Museum-inspired capsule collection Camilla released in May.
The subsequent ready-to-wear resort collection titled ‘Elsewhere Palace‘ unveiled this week is dreamier, lighter and looser in motif, fabric, and form.
“My journey has always been that pursuit of more. More colour, more story, more world on a page. But I arrived in Austria differently.”
Camilla Franks
Rather than consolidating everything she observed on her travels, Franks edited her Austrian experience to permit a breath of fresh air between the extravagance. Florals, whimsy and romance inspired by Viennese frescoes abound, as does Swarovski-faceted glass, reminiscent of Schonbrunn’s high-baroque crystal chandeliers.
“This collection is still maximalist at heart and deeply devotional in craft,” says Franks. “But there is this beautiful stillness inside the richness, and a confidence in contrast and restraint in knowing the most powerful thing you can do is leave space. This is Camilla more distilled.”
The eponymous designer turned 50 this year and is exhibiting a refined confidence on the heels of boutique openings at Atlantis The Palm in Dubai and on Madison Avenue in NYC, as well as reimagined flagship stores in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide.
From its humble origins as a beachside outpost in Bondi when Franks was just 28, the company has now scaled to 33 boutiques across Australia and the US, with department store presence in 53 other countries.
It was in Mozart’s homeland, Austria, that Franks found the catalyst for her next design chapter, and returned to the symphonic roots that marked her “fashion opera” debut at Australian Fashion Week in 2004.
“I’ve always been intrigued by the unexpected and unknown,” says former theatre actress Franks, who was accompanied by her daughter Luna on the exploratory trip to Vienna.
“We immerse ourselves in worlds where we don’t often speak the same tongue, but connect through the language of textile, colour, food, and sound. Travel truly is the best muse.”
Founder and Creative Director Camilla Franks will join Camilla CEO Rebecca Masergh in conversation at the Forbes Women Soiree on August 11 in Sydney.
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