With boutiques throughout Australia, a successful online business and an impressive list of international A-list customers, Camilla Franks is a fashion force to be reckoned with! Where does she get her inspiration? Well, look no further than her Number One Fan – namely her Mum Narelle.
Her style was well-defined long before the name ‘Camilla’ was synonymous with tribal prints and billowing kaftans – a flair she inherited from her former model Mother. The Aussie designer lives by the philosophy that “All women have the right to look and feel beautiful no matter their age, colour, size or origin”, and the ‘Camilla Tribe’ proves her point.
In the lead-up to Mother’s Day, the Carousel sat down with the Franks Mother and Daughter to find out what is so very special about their relationship.
Hit ‘play’ to discover what this vibrant duo revealed to our cameras, or read through below.
Interviewer: What sense of style do you share and what influences have you picked up from one-another?
Camilla Franks: Well we’re not alike at all (laughs because their style is very similar). I definitely get a lot of my sense of style from Mum – you know the five billion jangly bracelets to the multitude of rings. Growing up as a child I always remember Mum wearing the headscarf and the kaftans and pieces picked up on your travels, so I guess for me wearing these designs and designing these designs isn’t any different for me – it comes naturally, it’s part of my handwriting, my DNA because of my mum.
Narelle Franks: In the 70s when we drove overland to England Bill and I, I always wore a headscarf because it was so, so hot, and it became a part of me. And then growing up Camilla would see the scarves that I’d wear tied in different ways…
Camilla Franks: But also the garments you’d wear…
Narelle Franks: Oh yes, I’d always wear kaftans…
Camilla Franks: I remember getting my hands on your modelling portfolio and there were some outfits there … and the drawn on eyelashes.
Narelle Franks: (laughs) Yes, yes!
Camilla Franks: But I certainly get … well, when I dress, I don’t dress to please others I dress to please me…
Narelle Franks: (nods) to please yourself yes…
Camilla Franks: And I get people saying ‘You’re so courageous wearing that’ but I now look back at what Mum wore and I think ‘This is nothing!’ – They were ‘costumes’! (laughs).
Narelle Franks: The hotpants and the long thigh-high boots and the mesh tights.
Camilla Franks: It was all so special.
Interviewer: You share a passion for travel. Are you good travelling companions?
Camilla Franks: Well I’m amazing! (laughs)
Narelle Franks: Well I think we’re pretty good.
Camilla Franks: We are pretty good. We like to eat, we like to drink, we like to explore. The only thing that gets on my nerves is at night-time… because Mum and I usually share a bed… is these (shakes Narelle’s bangles and rings), because she doesn’t take them off. They wake you up throughout the night… you hear them. They just rattle away. It’s not the snoring – it’s that!
Narelle Franks: I don’t snore!
Camilla Franks: As a child I remember Fiji…
Narelle Franks: Ah, holidays as a family…
Camilla Franks: … and now as a grown woman I appreciate mum more-so you know, because I get to know her as a friend also. So our later trips – we went on ‘The World’ and to Dubrovnik.
Narelle Franks: Oh that was wonderful together.
Interviewer: Camilla, what was your childhood like?
Camilla Franks: It was a beautiful childhood. I mean my memories of childhood are at Watson’s Bay swinging on the trees. Bonfire nights. Eating at Doyle’s pretty much every week, on the sand, connecting with Mother Nature – always beautiful food in the home, lots of laughter. I was a tomboy – skateboards.
Narelle Franks: Wonder Woman on roller skates.
Camilla Franks: Yes, roller skates. Always in the ocean – and we had that crappy little boat, ‘DeeDee’ or whatever it was called, and Dad used to sink it every week.
Narelle Franks: Yes, yes.
Camilla Franks: And I’d have to get rescued – he was like the Uri Geller of boats. Yes, our childhood was always based around the sea, and the parks and Mother Nature… and food.
Narelle Franks: Yes.
To find out about Camilla’s plans for 2016 click here
Do you have a favourite Camilla ‘look’? Tell us in the comments below…
