The industry, especially the Australian fashion industry, is a lot like Mordor from the Lord of the Rings. There is evil there, like fast fashion chains that do not sleep and the marketing clout of international luxury brands, yet the great eye that is ever watchful is Carla Zampatti.

The first lady of Australian fashion this year marks 50 years of dressing a plethora of personalities – from dignitaries, like former Governor-General Quentin Bryce, to royals such as Princess Mary – she even designed cars for Ford back in the 1980s, but on Wednesday Zampatti served up a bright, zesty entree to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, which officially starts on Sunday.

Her spring/summer 2015 collection, which will arrive in stores in June, was not a kitsch trip down memory lane. It was a fierce representation of how the designer is forging, full steam ahead with her eponymous label on her quest to make women feel good and look beautiful. A mission which is now half a century old.

"I wanted to do colour because we are renowned for black and white," she said of the collection which is a modern take on Dynasty made up of an Indian pink opera coat, jackets with oversized bows and blouses with flower-like epaulettes. Not to mention a palette of electric blue that is smoother than Iva Davies' dulcet tones and evening gowns in a buttercup yellow that were a last-minute addition.

"That yellow story came about three days ago. My team produced those at the very last minute," she said of her design team which consists of Zampatti, who is Italian, and two others who are of Chinese and Vietnamese decent.

Her signature styles, including stove pipe pants, full skirts and crepe jackets may come down the runway every season but it's case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" for the 72-year-old designer who has a client base ranging in ages from 17 to 70.

Zampatti, who looks forward to someday catching up on "reading everything that is stacked up on my book shelf", has no plans of retiring any time soon.

"I have two daughters who work in the business now which allows me so much more time to focus on doing what I love, which is designing. I get emails from clients telling me to never, ever retire so that inspires me to keep going," Zampatti said.

It's a comment that would not only make Joe Hockey happy, but please her legion of fans including television royalty Kerri-Anne Kennerley, breakfast TV star Samantha Armytage and friend Ros Packer.

The Duchess of Cambridge is still the designer's white whale. Having missed an opportunity to dress the former Kate Middleton during last year's official royal tour, Zampatti remains optimistic.

"She wears clothes so well. We were there. We were requested to provide options for her during the tour but she wore someone else. It just was an honour to have her introduced to our collection."