Carpenter's Daughter

When filmmaker Julian Lucas, Creative Director of Wildebeest, stumbled upon local Melbourne designer Carpenter’s Daughter on Instagram, his filmmaker’s eye was immediately struck by the captivating visual aesthetic of the photographs.

Interesting people wearing beautiful utilitarian aprons, shot on 35mm film in atmospheric places, drew him in to find out more, intuitively responding to a sense of creative kinship. From this, a collaboration between the two grew into a short film exploring the ethos behind Carpenter’s Daughter and celebrating the many forms of creativity.

As she tells in the film, Camilla Moire Smith, founder of Carpenter’s Daughter, began the business as a way of exploring her varied interests in creative fields from sculpture to floristry, cooking, painting and gardening. ‘I think it also came from a love of supporting other people’s creativity, and perhaps the apron, as an object, symbolises this’, she says.

As a filmmaker, creativity is central to Julian’s life too, and as the collaboration developed the film became a part of this process of one creative pursuit engaging with and supporting another’s creativity. Just as much a meditation on creativity as it is a story of a unique brand, Julian describes it as almost a ‘snowball of creativity, as I made a film about Camille making objects that help others to make things’.

While Carpenter’s Daughter is at the heart of the film, as it is a true collaboration born out of shared interests and creative rapport Julian says it was refreshing to not have any particular brand message to convey or product to portray. ‘It was simple’, he says, ‘I like her brand and wanted to make a film about it. The idea grew as Camille and I spent time together and chatted about what it could look like. I’m also drawn to incredible locations, and so when I saw Camille’s uncle’s house I know that we had to film there – so many intricately designed rooms with pockets of light here and there.’

The rustic, welcoming house was the location for the lunch in the film, which captures the spirit of community and creativity that Carpenter’s Daughter has cultivated. The leather and canvas aprons have become a tangible connection between Camilla and the artists, cooks, gardeners, designers and makers who wear them. ‘Carpenter’s Daughter is special in that I’m constantly surprised by how such a simple object has opened up and connected me to so many networks’, she says.

In only two and a half minutes, the film captures captures the ethos and aesthetic of Carpenter’s Daughter and the creative community that surrounds the business. A brief yet poignant insight into the world of one creative, captured by another, it is both heartening and inspiring.