Where's Willy

The first time I met William Lazootin was when my daughter Gypsy first introduced us in Sydney. Gypsy had been working on Chronicles of Narnia and William had made one of the main characters patterns.

We all had breakfast together and William told me he was moving to Adelaide to be with his family while he had treatment at the R.A.H. sadly Willy had cancer (which is now in remission) but at the time was a dreadful shock to everyone.

I was hoping we would catch up when he was a feeling better and told Gypsy to tell him I was happy to meet up with him anytime or hang out at the hospital.

I had been a huge fan of Project Runway of which he had been a finalist. Not only did I know a few of the contestants but I love the show anyway and I didn’t miss a single episode of that particular one. I felt as though I knew William even before we met  but does anyone really know William.

 He is so eccentric and so out there you never know quite what your going to get.

To cut a long story short Willy text me and we caught up. We talked about P.R. fashion and all sorts of stuff  and quickly realised how much we had in common. We hit it off from the start, I told Willy how much I would love to have someone like him at H.C.H.Q. but there would be no way I could afford to pay him what he had been paid  on film and working for Collette Dinnegan, Sass and Bide, Marc Jacobs ect.
Willy didn’t seem worried about the money at all and said he just wanted to stay busy so we came to an arrangement that suited us both and William set about making patterns for the new website. Every Monday we would go see a movie and have lunch and as William got better I kept thinking he will be leaving any day now but 15 months later he was still making me laugh.

I have so many wonderful memories of William dancing down the stairs in a pink tutu, spinning around the room with a mannequin or laughing so hard at lunch we nearly choked. My favourite memory will be of him coming in first thing in the morning and rolling around on the floor in his velvet jacket with our cat Chico.

You may have guessed already but William has left us now, we’re so happy he came into our Hot Couture lives like the whirlwind that he is. Willy is heading back to Sydney at the end of June, I know that’s where he belongs.
We will miss him but life goes on at H.C.H.Q we already have someone fabulous starting tomorrow. SHHHH!!!!! I will let the cat out of the bag in the next blog.

In the meantime Willy have a wonderful, wonderful life we wish you all the best with your next adventure. XXX Joy