02/10/2023
RIP Julian Robinson, head of Fashion & Textile Design at Sydney College for the Arts in our 1980 - 1983 years.
He worked for fifteen years as a professional designer with his own Fashion House in Hanover Square, London, having a clientele that included Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Shrimpton, Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies (at the time of the Profumo affair), and Veruschka - becoming one of the founders of the Carnaby Street school of designers of the 1960s "Swinging London" era.
As a Design Consultant, he undertook design and promotional work with Mary Quant, Biba, Sir Norman Hartnell, Michael of Lachaise, Hardy Amis,Yves Saint-Laurent and Zandra Rhodes, designed special collections for Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, Lord & Taylor N.Y. Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Bergdorf Goodman and the famous Paris store Galeries Lafayette. His designs being featured in numerous editions of Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and other prestigious glossy fahion magazines. He also appeared in and hosted a number of television programmes and documentaries at that time.
In 1976 he was head-hunted to assist in the establishing of a University of the Arts in Australia. Later, he established degree and post-graduate courses at Sydney College of the Arts.
He became well known as one of the world's leading experts on Art Deco Illustration, and sold collections to some of the world's leading museums and art galleries. His books on this subject, The Golden Age of Style, The Brilliance of Art Deco and The Fine Art of Fashion, like several of his other books, have been published internationally and translated into many languages, including French, German, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese and Spanish.
