Butterfly on a Pin: A memoir of love, despair and reinvention
By (Author) Alannah Hill
Hardie Grant Books
Hardie Grant Books
1st November 2018
Hardback
Australia
General
Non Fiction
Fashion and textile design
746.92092
432
Width 167mm, Height 210mm
1630g
'Raw and real and funny and sad I could not put this book down' Jane Kennedy
'You might expect fluff and fashion ... what you get is harrowing, full-strength, funny and deeply satisfyingZo Foster Blake
Unflinching, funny, shocking, inspiring and tender: this is a story like no other.
Alannah Hill, one of Australias most successful fashion designers, created an international fashion brand that defied trendswith ornamental, sophisticated elegance, beads, bows and vintage florals. But growing up in a milk bar in Tasmania, Alannahs childhood was one of hardship, fear and abuse. At an early age she ran away from home with eight suitcases of costumes and a fierce determination to succeed, haunted by her mothers refrain of Youll never amount to anything, you cant sew, nobody likes you and youre going to end up in a shallow grave, dear!
At the height of her success, Alannah walked the razors edge between two identities the good Alannah and the mongrel bastard Alannah. Who was the real Alannah Hill Reprieve came in the form of a baby boy and the realisation that becoming a mother not only changes your life, but completely refurbishes it, forever.
Yet 'having it all' turned out to be another illusion. In 2013 Alannah walked away from her eponymous brand, a departure that left her coming apart at the seams. She slowly came to understand the only way she could move forward was to go back. At the heart of it all was her mother, whose loveless marriage and disappointment in life had a powerful and long-lasting effect on her daughter. It was finally time to call a truce with the past.
This extraordinary book is the fierce and intelligent account of how a freckle-faced teenage runaway metamorphosed into a trailblazer and true original.
Alannah Hill is a designer, author and stylist. For seventeen years she was the founder and creative director of the brand Alannah Hill, one of Australias mosticonic fashion houses. In 2013 Alannah left her eponymous brand and in 2015 launched her new fashion brand, Louise Love. Alannah lives in Melbourne with her sixteen-year-old son and her beagle dog, Jack.