CAMILLA Founder and Creative Director Camilla Franks has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Canberra.
Our fearless founder and trailblazing leader Camilla Franks was presented with the India Australia Business Community Alliance (IABCA) Lifetime Achievement Award last Friday night, in front of a glittering array of VIPs and industry powerhouses from politics, diplomacy, business and the arts, including First Nations artist Danielle Mate, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and His Excellency Gopal Baglay, High Commissioner of India to Australia.
The IABCA is dedicated to strengthening cultural and economic ties between Australia and India and to recognising key figures driving the relationship.
This IABCA Lifetime Achievement Award acknowledges the enormous contribution that our beautiful Founder & Creative Director has made to the alliance between India and Australia, through her extensive work in building a thriving partnership with our India-based artisan print house, and her dedication to preserving traditional craftsmanship, while nurturing innovation and empowering emerging artisans.
“Receiving the IABCA Lifetime Achievement Award is an incredible honour,” said Camilla. “To be recognised as a pioneer in the creative and textiles industry is something I’ve always dreamed about. For that dream to become a reality moves me to my core. It's a gift from the universe and a moment I’ll treasure forever.”
Left to right: Alika Bakshi, Founder of the IABCA Sonia Sadiq Gandhi, Jaggi Bakshi, Camilla Franks, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and High Commissioner of India to Australia Gopal Bagalay.
This year, CAMILLA is celebrating 20 years in the fashion industry, and for almost as long, Camilla Franks has had a business and creative working partnership with Jaggi and Alika Bakshi and their print house, which now contributes 85% of CAMILLA production. What started with five artisan employees has grown to over 1,200.
From the very beginning, the creation of each CAMILLA garment has been a collective affair, drawing on the unique skills of artisan communities. Celebrating creativity, with sustained advocacy and partnership cultivation, is woven into the CAMILLA brand DNA.
Left to right: Alika Bakshi, Camilla Franks and Jaggi Bakshi.
“I have always been a seeker,” says Camilla. “As I travelled and dreamed, I gathered a collective of artisans, printmakers, storytellers and adventurers, and our life and our love and our passion is woven into the fabric of each CAMILLA garment. To have this work recognised as a Lifetime Achievement is thrilling and humbling, and the honour belongs as much to my Indian family of artisans as to me.”
"Jaggi and Alika have allowed me to spread my angel wings. They have supported me in every rise and fall. They are more than business partners, they are family! A part of CAMILLA forever. Our creativity, our vision, our businesses, communities and cultures have blossomed together across Australia and India.”
