By Seth Khouri
For Resort 26, Carla Zampatti transformed the Park Hyatt boardwalk into its runway. Against the glow of Sydney Harbour and with the Opera House standing in quiet grandeur, Reflections unfolded as an homage to the enduring codes of the house. Sydney, however, had other plans. A forecasted clear evening gave way to rain, soaking guests and models alike. Still, the unexpected weather only heightened the mood—as though designer Tanya Emon Beattie had quietly enlisted the storm itself, amplifying the collection’s romance by degrees.
The forty-five-look collection opened with a restrained palette of black and white. Powersuits, buttoned trenches, feather-trimmed shirting, and pleated dresses illustrated Beattie’s ongoing reinterpretation of Zampatti’s house codes. The opening look—a floor-length black trench, buttoned below the hip before giving way to a dramatic slit—offered a study in subversion, with puffed, flared wrists disrupting its severity and lending the silhouette a subtle sense of drama. Elsewhere, tailoring retained the assured glamour long synonymous with the house, balancing structure with fluidity rather than allowing either to dominate.
While Zampatti’s codes date back to 1965, something became lost in translation as Beattie disrupted the collection’s tonal narrative. Following the monochrome opening came a kaleidoscope of lilac, cherry red, and moss green. In isolation, each spoke to Beattie’s playful command of colour—something Zampatti herself understood well. Together, however, the shift felt abrupt, sacrificing cohesion for contrast and leaving the collection momentarily disjointed. The tension lay not in experimentation itself, but in sequencing; with Beattie occasionally struggling to reconcile its competing moods.
Elsewhere, a sheer crystal pencil skirt, embellished with leopard-like crystal motifs and tasselled feather detailing, was paired with a sculptural black blouse. Its exaggerated boat neckline projected outward, lending the silhouette a sense of structure, while softly curved sleeves tempered its severity. Later, a moss-green silk blouse-and-trouser set offered a moment of restraint—an elegant proposition for the everyday Australian woman long central to the Zampatti ethos. It was in these quieter moments that the collection felt most assured, speaking to the enduring appeal of clothes designed to be worn rather than merely observed.Reflections ultimately succeeded where it mattered most: in reaffirming the visual language of Carla Zampatti while allowing space for Beattie’s own perspective to emerge. Although occasionally uneven in tone, the collection nevertheless suggested a designer increasingly comfortable negotiating the balance between preservation and renewal.