The party took off with a bang – full house and packing them in to the rafters, so busy in fact, there was an hour-long queue into the venue. Everyone came and we were thus introduced to Sydney’s gay community. At midnight, DCM’s stage lit up with performers dressed in risqué black leather, wearing masks and carrying whips. They provocatively ascended to the dance floor, crawling like purring cats about to mate, doing the sexy dance routine while the song “Free, Gay and Happy” was pumping. The curtain revealed the birthday boys, Potas and me, on a Harley Davidson, half naked and clad in leather. More flashing lights, we all danced to our own choreography. The crowd roared. It was spectacular. A smashing night indeed. The guts we had! If my parents had seen me on that Harley with my crotch almost visible to the entire crowd, I would have been crucified.
Two days later, I received a call at work. Not being allowed any personal calls unless of an urgent nature, I was curious, and more so when the caller identified himself as Greg McGree, the hotelier and nightclub king, who told me he had attended my party. He informed me he and his business partners would like to meet me to discuss a new project on Oxford Street, one which would benefit from my participation.
I agreed to meet them at a cafe on Oxford Street a week later, and at that meeting they offered me a job – to run their new gay nightclub.
Number 193 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, was formerly a bank. It was a majestic, gothic three-storey building, at the time trading under a restaurant licence as a pizza bar. Greg and his partners were going to be granted a hotelier’s licence in the next few months. They wanted to get rid of the existing pizza business, and open a new club catering only to gay and lesbian patrons. Wow, what a fantastic way of exercising my passion and enthusiasm. I was to put my face to the project – planning the club’s itinerary, advertising, promotional activities and overall theme and decor. In the interim, while we waited for the licence, I would work with the Council to secure approval of the hotelier’s licence, as there was opposition to the proposal from surrounding neighbours and venues in the precinct.
It was an unreal offer, especially for a 23-year-old with no money, but the issue was university in six months – plus I didn’t think I had the ability or the experience to take on a project of this scale. Nevertheless, they talked me into it and the offer was too good to refuse. I decided to sign on for six months, which would allow me to save a substantial amount of money to pay the university fees.
In May 1997, four years after arriving in Australia, we opened The Stonewall Hotel. I was instrumental in picking the name, which was a homage to Judy Garland and the riots of ’64 in New York City. The riots liberated the gay movement.
Opening night was an unprecedented spectacle. Drag queens in amazing costumes were lifted on a cherry picker parked outside the venue, while glittering fireworks lit up the night sky for the 1,000 people queuing to enter the pumping new venue. At the famous gay ghetto of Oxford Street, Stonewall fast became the hippest entertainment venue. Imagine three floors of nonstop stimulating gay activity, a pub to watch drag shows and chill, a swish chandeliered cocktail bar, and the top floor disco to dance the night away! It also had a souvenir store that doubled for coat check, while memorabilia of gay icons were displayed in the venue.
I was trying to create the gay version of Hard Rock Cafe and it worked. Nights were packed with events and performances throughout the week, including the famous Wednesday night dating game, Malebox. Patrons poured in – drag shows, lesbian nights, disc jockeys from all over the world, male beauty pageants, and go-go dancers danced half-nude on the bar top benches. Stonewall was a big hit. Oxford Street had never seen anything like it, an entertainment venue this size, and its name fell on everyone’s lips.
In order to keep me in the position when my time was up, the owners made me licencee of the venue and offered me shares in the business. My university plans went on hold and I continued what became a six-year stint with Stonewall.
Throughout the six years, I met wonderful people and made strong alliances including Carlotta the famous transsexual, high-ranking public officers and others. In many ways, I am glad I stayed as long as I did. If I hadn’t, I would not have met the love of my life, my partner Jayson Brunsdon.
2
Fashion Designer
Jayson Brunsdon was born on 29 August 1964 to Dorothy Dawn (née Hayes) and Malcolm Keith Brunsdon, childhood sweethearts who met on a bus coming back from Lismore to Ballina after playing sports. Dorothy was fifteen at the time, a star hockey player, and Malcolm was a buff seventeen-year-old footballer. The bus was packed with passengers when Dorothy, in her soiled uniform, offered Malcolm a seat on her lap. They fell in love on that muddy afternoon, on board the small country bus, and thus began a union spanning more than sixty years.
Malcolm’s family were free settlers from Scotland. His grandfather, Jayson’s great-grandfather, Colonel Warner Spalding, was one of the early free settlers. He arrived in Australia in 1858 and was second in charge of the first ever troop that left Australia to Sudan. Under the command of Colonel Kitchener, they rescued the British people in Khartoum. He was married twice, and had six kids from his second marriage. Malcolm’s mother Daphne, the last of Spalding’s six children, met and married Kelvin Brunsdon in 1929. They had four sons. Malcolm, the third in the family, came along in 1933.
Dorothy’s parents were also free settlers from England. They settled in South Australia and later moved to Ballina where they worked as cedar timber cutters. Dorothy’s mother, Olive Doman, married Thomas Hayes in 1929 in Kyogle. Dorothy Dawn was the oldest child and the fairest. Disease struck Dorothy’s father, and she lost him when she was only four months old. Her younger sister by another father grew up with Dorothy. They survived the Depression years in poverty.
Several years after the two teenagers’ encounter on the bus, Malcolm and Dorothy wed in 1955, in a modest church in the small country town of Ballina. They had their honeymoon on South Molle Island and shortly afterwards moved to Ipswich, Queensland, where Malcolm served in the Royal Air Force for six years. In 1957, the young couple moved to Sydney and lived in the eastern suburb of Rose Bay, later building their family home in Frenchs Forest, a northern suburb of Sydney. Here they raised their two sons: Craig, the eldest, born in 1960, and Jayson four years later, both delivered at Crown Street Women’s Hospital. Jayson was a very good baby, the quiet, perfect little one. I can imagine him as a young toddler, quiet – shy, with good manners, playing innocently with the box of crayons he loved most.
Dorothy started working at David Jones in 1958 as a sales assistant in the menswear department. She dressed immaculately each day, her young son Jayson taking great pride in and greatly influenced by his mother’s fashion sense. He marvelled at her style, inspired by her poise. He went to Cromer Primary School, and was a good student who excelled in arts, later becoming dux of the high school. He was never interested in sports and his father tried in vain to get him to take up football. Unlike his brother Craig who completely immersed himself in the local north shore surf culture, Jayson only wanted to draw – spending most of his young life sketching on the blackboard, later drawing beautiful landscapes and still lifes on paper with his sable paintbrushes that his godfather Paul had bought him. He would skip school, playing truant whenever he could to watch old movies. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, with Audrey Hepburn, was his all-time favourite. Later, the actress became his muse and one of the highlights of his career was in 1989 when he met her at a UNICEF dinner.
In 1982, at the age of seventeen, the ambitious and talented Jayson wanted to become a fashion designer. He persuaded his slightly reticent parents, who knew Jayson could potentially be a lawyer or an academic, to allow him to fulfil his dreams. They let him enrol in Sydney’s College of the Arts.
“I want to design, to make beautiful clothes for women, to dress and wear the clothes like Mum did.”
Two years later, Jayson decided to leave the famous college (known for breeding aspiring young designers)
. Ever the entrepreneur, he designed and illustrated a range of T-shirts he branded “Jayson and the Argonauts”. From his parents’ garage, he toiled over the commercial goods which he later sold at Paddington Market for some extra cash. Eventually he grew weary of singlehandedly managing the small T-shirt business. He had other plans; he wanted to travel the world, become a stylist, dress models and stars in top European designers’ latest collections.
One night, at the famous Berlin Club, the hippest of the era, Jayson, dressed up as a new romantic with a towering painted mohawk hairstyle, met Peter Morrissey and Leona Edmiston. “Lone”, as he calls her, and Peter were best friends who had just finished design school and wanted to start their own label. He remembers clearly the night when Leona walked into the club, by far the most beautiful woman on the planet. Her presence was so strong, people around her would stop to stare at the rare beauty. She was elegant, chic and very much the personification of Audrey Hepburn. He was crazy about her from the minute they met.
As for Peter, romance sparked that night and after that meeting at Berlin Club, he and Jayson started dating. The relationship lasted more than nine years, but culminated in a long-distance affair that proved too exhausting to maintain.
Mr Morrissey, as he prefers to be known, has a twin sister. They and their four siblings had a very strict Catholic upbringing in Caringbah, a southern suburb of Sydney. Peter has an obvious schoolboy sense of humour but is a kind-natured person, ambitious and with a healthy ego. Most people, including me, adore him, and he earned the nickname “Naughty” from me for his jovial personality. He has the gift of the gab and loves cracking jokes that sometimes aren’t humorous but you laugh anyway or roll your eyes as if to say “here he goes again”.
Peter and Leona joined forces and went on to start the label Morrissey Edmiston, which became the quintessential Australian home-grown label. It grew internationally and Jayson helped them in the designs and creative aspects. The three were a perfect creative combination and became Australia’s fashion darlings. They dressed stars and famous people around the world – INXS, Kylie Minogue and Elle McPherson to name a few. They travelled the world together, and drove all the way across Europe to the eastern border together. They were best friends – fashion designers with the world at their fingertips.
In 1986, Jayson employed his artistic skills to become a fashion illustrator and started working for magazines like Dolly, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. In 1987 he met Nicole Bonython, then fashion editor of Australia’s number one fashion magazine called Follow Me. Nicole was about to go on maternity leave and wanted someone to take over her position as fashion editor. The job allowed the candidate to travel the world to fashion shows on the international catwalk with front row seats at Gautier, Kenzo, Chanel and YSL. Jayson was the perfect choice. The young, ambitious and driven designer lasted more than five years in the pivotal role of editor, consumed by the long and gruelling travel schedules. Working by his side as his assistant was the young, beautiful 19-year-old fashion enthusiast, Naomi Watts. Naomi and Jayson were a great team. She was determined and Jayson knew Naomi would develop into something much bigger one day. When Naomi left in 1990, she shared her dreams with Jayson. She was leaving fashion to pursue her ambition of becoming an actress. He knew deep down in his heart that she would succeed and she did. When she made it as a superstar, she never forgot Jayson and where she had once come from. An exceptional human being!
In 1991, after his stint as magazine editor, Jayson went freelance and moved to London. He became the hottest stylist in town, such was his calibre in London’s fashion world. He had extraordinary talent and a massive portfolio that led magazine editors to book him to style their magazines. English Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar engaged the services of the sought-after Australian stylist. Later, his name appeared in almost every top English fashion publication.
As his fame in the industry grew, stars and celebrities also closely watched his talent. One day, Jayson received a phone call from Chris Murphy, agent of Australia’s hottest band, INXS. Everyone was talking about them in the ’80s. Michael Hutchence and his band members wanted Jayson to style them and Chris was to get him at any cost. Jayson deliberated about the offer for a week. He was happy with his styling jobs — the work was constant and paid very well, but working with the band would open big opportunities. He couldn’t let the opportunity slip by to style one of the world’s biggest and hottest bands. He accepted. Jayson’s memories of the band are so profound that he has never stopped talking about Michael since the day I met him. He spoke about what a wonderful person Michael was and of how he lived the high life. He was a true rock star, but his life became polluted by drugs and alcohol, which later consumed him.
Michael and Jayson were a good match. Jayson had a good eye and Michael took risks by trusting Jayson’s choices. Jayson recalls once being seated next to Kylie Minogue at Wembley Stadium while Michael was performing on stage for 90,000 English concertgoers. It was momentous for Jayson to see Michael, the rock ’n’ roll god, oozing such superstar style sex appeal on stage. Styling Michael had been a pivotal role in Jayson’s fashion career.
A year later, Michael asked Jayson to move to New York with them where they were intending to reside. The band wanted to capitalise on the growing American market. Their number one hits were blitzing the American pop charts. Jayson would continue to work styling and dressing the band for their performances and stage shows.
He accepted the role and moved to New York in 1993, this time as head stylist for INXS. He was paid double in the new role. In his free time, Jayson could work with American publications to style their glossies and engage in freelance jobs. The work flowed and Jayson was busier than ever. He also met Brana Wolfe, an Australian herself, who was then fashion editor of American Vogue and king in the American fashion sector. Brana, having a rare eye for talent, instrumental in many careers of American fashion designers like Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan, recognised the talent of the home-grown stylist. Brana was known to be one of the world top ten stylists and was one of the most powerful people in fashion – having worked with Gianni Versace, Madonna and Lagerfeld in the ’80s. She hired Jayson to style and fill the pages of American Vogue. In his tenure, he worked with supermodels Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington, to name a few.
After several years working with INXS, Jayson returned to Sydney in 1994 to take up the role of creative director for Morrissey Edmiston, the business having by then established itself as one of Australia’s top design brands, making it a household name.
At the same time, Jayson met Jarrad Clark, a driven young man from Queensland who looked like Barry Gibb. While Jarrad was working odd jobs at cafes, he waited impatiently for a breakthrough role in fashion. Finally, months into the relationship and under recommendation from Jayson, he landed himself a job with entrepreneur Simon Lock, who owned a communications company called Spin Communications. Simon had a vision, a dream, which was to start a fashion week in Australia and he needed the right person to help him out. Jarrad, being up to the task, landed himself the coveted role.
All was going great in fashion world and the house of Morrissey Edmiston kept booming to greater heights. Peter and Leona blitzed the magazines and newspapers with their collections and their Strand Arcade store almost couldn’t keep up with stock. Fashion enthusiasts formed queues daily to shop at the flagship boutique. Jayson was in his element, shaping the company with his vast knowledge of the fashion industry and what he had gleaned from his overseas stint. His network within the industry and his connection with Brana and the overseas magazines only further strengthened the company. Morrissey Edmiston became recognised as an international brand after it hit the shop floors of Henri Bendel, America’s fashion shopping destination, which only stocked the best designers in the world. The label gathered more kudos when who else was picked to wear and be ambassador for the gear but the beautiful Elle McPherson, the only Aussie supermodel of the time
.
Alas, it didn’t last. In 1997 the dynamics turned sour. The relationship between the designers, under increasing pressure to stay on top of their game, grew tense. After fourteen years together, Peter and Leona called it a day. A public war ensued with the pair falling under public scrutiny. “Australia’s fashion darlings at war” the headlines read. Daily coverage in the newspapers saw the pair fighting over control of the label with administrators. The company entered liquidation and was finally dissolved. For months, Australia had never seen such an uproar take place between two of their most celebrated fashion designers. The tabloids had a field day covering court appearances. It was an ugly time! No one won in the end. A great loss and the destruction of the iconic label which had placed Australia on the international fashion world stage for over a decade.
After the split, Jayson joined Peter Morrissey when he started his own eponymous label, with the aid of Rene Rivkin as backer. After years of solid friendship, Leona and Jayson’s relationship took a sabbatical. Jayson had to sever all ties with her, something he was never proud of doing and felt sad about. It took more than a decade for Jayson and Leona to mend their tarnished relationship.
Meanwhile, Leona pursued a solo comeback but folded a year later. Despite the hurdles, she persisted, relaunching her eponymous label later in 2001 with her business partner and now husband Jeremy Ducker. Jeremy – extremely talented, a genius some would say – was on his way to becoming one of Australia’s most sought-after filmmakers when he met Leona, who wanted to design beautiful dresses. That’s all she ever wanted to do – she is very creative, with exquisite taste, and a brilliant designer. She, like Jayson, preferred not to be bogged down with a company’s monetary affairs. Jeremy saw the potential in this fashion business and knew that with some assistance Leona would soon be on her way once again to becoming very successful. He stayed on, later marrying her. Their empire today has grown to over thirty boutiques nationally, and more than twenty brand extensions, including hosiery, shoes, bags and accessories. They are a formidable team.
Designer Baby Page 2
