Personal Space: At home with fashion designer Bianca Spender

Australian fashion designer Bianca Spender lives in a two-storey terrace in Bronte with her partner Sam and their two sons Florian and Dominic.

A raw beauty dominates the period walls of their residence – think unpainted doors and skirting boards; blemishes that blend with her mix of Parisian aesthetic and love of antiques.

“What I find wonderful about a home are the imperfections, they really resonate with me,” Spender says.

You’ll finds lots of nostalgic pieces from art deco furniture to ceramics, paintings and charcoal drawings too.

Spender, who has run her namesake label for 11 years, says the seismic shift in the way we live our lives due to the pandemic has forced her to change the way she designs the clothes we wear.

“The way we live at home, how we work and engage with people and how we dress has all changed dramatically,” says Spender.

“On a fashion level I am trying to connect more than ever before to my customer because the world is craving connection.”

Spender admits she’s also taking a leaf out of Coco Chanel’s book, when the French designer made the bold move to introduce knits into everyday wear.

A few of Bianca’s favourite things …

Bridget Brandon ceramics

Bridget is a ceramicist friend; I have been collecting her pieces for seven years. I also like the sense of weight and movement and the irregularities are quite beautiful to me. I have always had a love for the Japanese movement of wabi-sabi – where everything is beautiful but not perfect.

French farmhouse kitchen table 

My dad gave me this table when he moved from his house to an apartment. I love the memories of the conversations that we keep adding to it. It doesn’t have a perfect polish either, it’s raw – so if you leave a cup, you will see a cup mark.

Grandfather’s clock

I grew up with this clock and we had a ritual every weekend of winding it up. Knowing it was my paternal grandfather’s and had a third generation of children engaged with it is wonderful. We lived in my grandfather’s house when I was nine so it’s been in my life ever since I can remember.

Allegra Spender painting of parents

My sister has always painted. I love the way there is this relationship between my parents on the couch in this; they aren’t looking at each other but are definitely connected. They are in the middle of a moment in time and it’s beautifully captured. It was done in the ’90s when Dad was in the embassy in Paris.