Seated in her parlour room, surrounded by angel paintings, a ‘peace’ tree and gorgeous antique furniture, is the soon to be 73 year old Carmel Kambouris. A fabulous lady, she has just replaced Angela Lansbury as second place on my ‘adopt me list’ (Anna Piaggi being number one of course).
While her gorgeous giggle and killer collection of angels is enough for me to plead that she be my fairy godmother, it’s her soon to be auctioned off vintage clothing that warrant the adoption papers. And these aren’t your every day grandma clothes, unless your grandma was one for a bit of Missoni. Carmel’s personal collection including Courreges, Missoni, Pucci, Valentino, Callaghan and Gianni Versace, as well as items from Mary Lupshut will be auctioned on November 15th for The Children's Cancer Institute following a fashion parade.
Carmel was born and raised in Townsville during the World War II, and despite her remote surroundings, the flamboyant young girl designed her first dress when she was 3 years old. “It’s in my genes. My mother was a wonderful seamstress. I was very blessed because she let me design dresses out of the precious fabrics that she kept. She was very creative and I think I got a lot of creativity from her”
At the young age of 13 Carmel went out into the workforce. After a few jobs at the town theatre and as a bridal consultant and manager at a chic boutique, Carmel decided opened a small boutique in the suburbs of Townsville.
She soon outgrew the tiny suburban store and made the move to Brisbane and opened a store in the city.
“So it was 1968 when I opened in Brisbane. I made the upstairs for older women, and the downstairs for younger women. I did all of the interior decorating” including collaborating with famous wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst. Later on Carmel included an international boutique downstairs as well, stocking labels such as Emilio Pucci, Missoni and Callaghan, a label designed by Gianni Versace before he began his eponymous Versace empire.
It is these labels that are set to be auctioned off for Children’s Cancer research on Sunday 15th of November. The idea for the parade began during a tea party at Carmel’s house.
“I had an angel tea party to raise money and I had all of my friends wear white gowns and angel wings. It started at 10 in the morning and we were still sitting round at 8 at night. I was talking about how I had been taking a lot of my international clothing out and I was thinking about selling them for the children’s cancer organization. And they all said What? Where are they?”
Before too long her friends were trying on her dresses and within half an hour they were organizing a fashion parade in Carmel’s house for 50 pieces. The auction will now include 150 looks at the grand ballroom of Brisbane City Hall and will seat just under 1000 people.
Tickets $45 from qtix.