BIANCA SPENDER

ON BEING LIBERATED AND THROWING OUT THE RULEBOOK.

Bianca Spender is one of Australia’s most iconic fashion designers. In this special episode of the lady-brains podcast, recorded live from Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2022, Bianca shares why this season’s collection was inspired by the ‘liberation of women’, and how creating this year’s runway actually liberated her in the process.

You’ll learn: 

  • How Bianca balances her Excel spreadsheets and business brain, with her intense creative flair and vision  

  • Why she’s thrown out the rulebook and has decided to embrace disruption in every area of her business  

  • Why 50% of her collection is created with dead stock, and how her creative process adapts when she’s designing garments with the remnants in front of her  

  • How Bianca was diagnosed with dyslexia in recent years and how this impacts the way she works 

  • Why Bianca bought the brand off her mother, Carla Zampatti 

  • How Bianca learnt the difference between P&L and cash flow the hard way 

We hope you enjoyed this conversation – for more podcast action follow us on Instagram @lady.brains, or sign up to our monthly newsletter at www.ladybrains.com 

THE BITS YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS

“Resourcefulness is working out your frame, rather than asking for a blank canvas.”
— On using what you have at your disposal.
“We both just said, ok it’s time I need to make all of the calls and learn by [making] mistakes. I physically moved my office out of her office, and...you never know what it is to set up a home until you do it. And you never know what it is to set up a business until you do it on your own. And it was really beautiful.”
— On buying her business from her mother, Carla Zampatti.
“The more creative you are, the more stress you’re putting on your critical path - to resolve the idea, still being a perfectionist, and deliver it on time.”
— On walking the tightrope between creative and commercial.
“I knew my P&L so well, but I’d never done a cash flow...GST and the quarterly [BAS]... I was like, no one told me that I have to put GST in this whole thing and then take it out of this whole thing! It’s honestly killer. Cash flow is everything. P&L is just a lovely thing at the end, but you doesn’t even mean that you will be here tomorrow.”
— On P&L vs. cash flow

Learn more:

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