Interior design guru Babette Hayes was a fixture of
Woman's Day for most of the '70s. It was a special time for homemakers all over the country as they explored a new, bold world of contemporary living.
What is your first memory of Woman's Day?
When I first met the Joan Reeder, who was the most marvellous editor, she was sitting on the floor, with her shoes off and we'd talk about what she wanted but I had a very free hand she was really very supportive. My friend Margaret Fulton was responsible for getting me to
Woman's Day, she suggested the idea to Joan and I remember being whipped off to Beppis for lunch and being offered the job of interior design editor. They had never had an interior design editor until that day.
What did you want to do at Woman's Day?
We were very forward thinking in terms of design offering the readers the opportunity to create homes that were comfortable and beautiful to live in. We covered a whole range of styles. My work tended to be very contemporary but the occasional Laura Ashley print would crop up.
How would you define the '70s style?
There was a wider range of different styles and we hadn't yet got into the all-white minimalist approach which was fortunate for my job because I had to make the pages look interesting every week. There was a lot going on with wallpapers. I would feature special designers like Harry Seidler and I would go overseas and design from overseas as well. In Australia we had something that was emerging. There was a real variety of designers and it was all just starting. The madness of colour was wonderful actually. They were making furniture in chromes and plastics. It was a time before everything went to China. There was a lot of local design work on show in people homes.
Is the '70s having a resurgence?
The look is coming back now but it's in a different way. We've got shag carpets but it's not what was used in those days, the fibres are different. And I remember in the bathrooms they'd use gel dye nylon carpet which was horrible, and a lot of carpet on the whole. Now a lot of stone and tiles are used on the floor and it's much more easy care. The carpet was very much the American and English attitude — especially carpets in bathrooms that was so American!
The '70s was a renovation revolution time?
It was about opening up the home, about bringing the kitchen out into the living space. And the living and the kitchen and dining became the heart of the house. A lot of money was spent on the kitchen. Kitchen design changed — the colours, the oranges and bright greens. In the '70s, Phillips and Pye were doing some really beautiful coloured television sets and coloured fridges and things, there was much more design emphasis on product and that was a revolution.
Readers loved your advice?
I thought it was important to show readers from the top end of the market to the budget and it also had to be well-designed. People would add to their homes little by little. But the thing about that was people would have a dream from what they saw in
Woman's Day. What really surprised me when I would go into people's homes was that there would be a room that was duplicated straight from the
WD pages. They'd even ring us up and say, 'Where did you get that jug on the top shelf?' So you realised just how much attention people paid to what they saw and they would really recreate a room. It made me realise just how responsible I had to be all the way through and we also had to make sure the quality was there.
You had a reputation for perfection?
I do remember meeting with the head photographer and he said to a junior photographer, "You're going to learn a lot from Babette. She's tough but you'll learn a lot." I didn't realise I had such a reputation as being demanding but it was because I wanted the lighting to be as natural as possible. Photographers weren't used to the way I worked with the camera but it worked in the end. We had a good relationship and we respected each others particular skills."
You worked under two different editors?
I found Joan Reeder a very intelligent woman. She was very idealistic as well and always wanted to raise the standard. Make people aware of what was new, what was stylish, what was good design and designers and architects and new product. It wasn't always the expensive stuff, a lot of it was budget, whether it was IKEA or something like that. That was a breath of fresh air. And then Mary Falloon came on board, she was great to work with too, a different style of editor. I was with
WD for seven years.
Return to the Woman's Day 1970s page
