By Anna Patty
For NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and ABC journalist Annabel Crabb, the cropped tailored jackets in Irish linen, luxury jacquard and tweed woollen fabrics were among favourites.
Australian fashion designer Anna Thomas.
TV interviewer Jane Hutcheon embraced some of the more colourful and adventurous patterns including cat faces, owls and love hearts. NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant mixed up the classics with fun designs including a silk shirt covered in colourful hot-air balloons.
These women are just a few loyal customers mourning Australian fashion designer Anna Thomas, who died on Friday at the age of 49.
Thomas, who battled illness for three years, leaves behind her husband David Barrington, the managing director of her fashion brand and their three children, Lilla, Angus and Oscar.
Ms Berejiklian described Thomas as "an icon and trailblazer in Australian fashion".
"Our deepest condolences to her loved ones," she said. "I was and remain a huge fan of her sense of style and confidence."
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian wearing one of her many Anna Thomas jackets.Credit: Joel Carrett
Hutcheon, former host of the ABC's One Plus One program, said her Anna Thomas wardrobe boosted her confidence during television interviews.
"We would sometimes talk about my cat shirt. It was quite an integral part of my TV personality if you like," Hutcheon said. "Whenever I wore that cat shirt I'd be inundated with emails from women asking me where I got it, even on the repeats."
Staff who work in the Anna Thomas boutiques in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth were struck by the publicity-shy designer's humility and uncompromising determination to maintain quality without sparing any cost.
Jane Hutcheon in her Anna Thomas cat-print shirt.
Her publicist Sarah Shand, who met Thomas 25 years ago when they started working together as designers for retailer Country Road, said her friend shied away from high-profile events.
"She was a quiet achiever and incredibly talented and never compromised," Ms Shand said. "She had a vision and never sold out. As far as quality, design, fabric - she never compromised on them."
The fabrics were always "the best" and "had to be beautiful", said Ms Shand. They included weighty Irish linens and European tweeds. There was no skimping on costs of say, one less button here or there, she said.
Thomas opened the first of her now 10 boutiques on Melbourne's Little Collins Street in 2004. She had launched her label two years earlier after returning to Melbourne from Italy where she worked as the fashion co-ordinator for the Weekend Max Mara label.
The daughter of an Australian nurse and a doctor from Kerala in India, Thomas grew up in Perth with three older sisters.
Before she died, Thomas completed a new summer and winter collection. The Anna Thomas team that worked with her are committed to continuing her legacy.