Behind the Scenes

Julia Gillard

Behind the scenes with Collette Dinnigan 

Fashion queen Collette Dinnigan was facing the working parent’s dilemma: a sleepless night with a sick child and too many deadlines to meet the following day. Her first appointment was to be with Life etc's hair and makeup artist, followed by an interview then a photo shoot. As any overtired parent will tell you, the last thing you’d feel like after a sleepless night is to go before the camera. Dinnigan's assistant sensibly delayed it all by two hours and when the designer — worth $21 million, according to BRW magazine — climbed the stairs of her studio with two-year-old Estella she looked terrific; a little tired, but terrific.

What to wear to an interview with Australia's most high-profile fashion exporter had posed a problem for Life etc editor, Jane Southward. Dinnigan managed to look glamorous in simple trackpants, jacket and thongs with black toe nail polish. Without any Dinnigan creations in her wardrobe, our editor opted for simple black and hoped the fashionista wouldn't comment. What would you have worn to such an appointment?

Dined and dazzled in Port Douglas 

It’s a tough job, but somebody has … so journalist Judy Friedlander bravely took up the assignment to experience all the luxury and beauty Far North Queensland’s Port Douglas has to offer. She found that underneath its glossy exterior is a very laid-back town with no high-rise apartments, traffic lights or fast food.
Friedlander loved the Sunday beachside market where locals and tourists throng to the large park at the end of the shopping precinct and haggle over casual clothes, fridge magnets, buttons, jewellery and other handmade items.

“I bought two bright green ceramic tree frogs which grace my pot plants and a button that said, ‘What if the hokey pokey is what it’s really all about?’” Friedlander recalls. “But in Port Douglas, you’re likely to end up thinking that because you become so relaxed.”
While, sadly, Friedlander missed out on seeing the adults-only cane toad-racing event at the local pub (“the mind boggles as to what goes on”), she made it to The Botanical Ark, 40km out of town, where she met “modern-day Noah” Alan Carle amid his 12 hectares of rare plants and fruit.

“The meal at the Ark was one of my most memorable,” Friedlander says. ”You get to taste fruits and other food that very few have savoured.”

At home with Richard Fidler

Back in 1997, Richard Fidler made Elizabeth Graham want to travel the world when he was host of ABC TV’s Race Around the World. When she interviewed him at his home in Brisbane late last year, he almost made her want to start collecting comic books.
“He knew so much about them and he’s so charming, you can’t help but get carried away with him into these other worlds,” Graham says.

Fidler had made a few comic books of his own during his time performing with the Doug Anthony All Stars and he kindly offered those to our staff writer for scrutiny. “He was too modest about his own drawings, which were excellent, but it was obvious that he really loved the artwork the group did.”

Graham and photographer Sean Watson spent a few hours at Fidler’s house one day after he’d finished his Afternoons program on ABC Radio Brisbane. As they sifted through his collection, taking photos and asking questions, Fidler’s family life carried on around him in, with his two young children playing happily nearby and wife Kym preparing an aromatic dinner. “Richard and his family were just so relaxed and welcoming, it made the whole experience very enjoyable,” Graham says.