Liz Newman's career took off in the 80s, after she started a knitwear label that became globally renowned.\u00a0 (Supplied: Tricia Watkinson)<\/p>\n
Eighties knitwear designer Liz Newman walks into a gallery space hung with the quirky, colourful jumpers made from patterns she created decades ago.<\/p>\n
She thought these designs were lost forever.<\/p>\n
"I'm absolutely amazed, a bit overwhelmed, and just awe-struck," Ms Newman said, looking around at dozens of newly knitted jumpers sporting the Australiana themes she developed in her early 20s, and some well-kept originals.<\/p>\n
Liz Newman at her surprise Knitwear: Back to the Future exhibition at the 2026 South Australian Living Artists Festival. (Supplied: Tricia Watkinson)<\/p>\n
At just 20, Liz Newman started a knitwear label that became globally renowned.<\/p>\n
She said it really took off in the mid-80s when Hey Hey It's Saturday star Jacki MacDonald started wearing her jumpers.<\/p>\n
"Every time Jacki wore one of the designs on Hey Hey, the Channel Nine switchboard would jam with people wanting to know where they could get the knitwear," Ms Newman said.<\/p>\n
Liz Newman was a national and global success. (Supplied: Tricia Watkinson)<\/p>\n
From a\u00a0boutique in Twin Street in the Adelaide CBD, she was selling jumpers to stars like ice-skating duo Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Olivia Newton-John, and even Princess Diana.<\/p>\n
She ventured into the US at the time the Australian international hit Crocodile Dundee arrived in cinemas, with designs like "Australian pizza with the lot", a jumper covered with Aussie tourism icons.<\/p>\n
"Australiana was very, very popular and Americans couldn't seem to get enough of anything Aussie," Ms Newman said.<\/p>\n
"All the stars seemed to align, and it just took off."<\/p>\n
Liz Newman's exhibition is being held in the Adelaide Hills until the end of August. (Supplied: Tricia Watkinson)<\/p>\n
At the height of her success, she was supplying 150 stores in the US, two Liz Newman boutiques in Sydney,\u00a0one in Melbourne, another in\u00a0Surfers Paradise and the original Adelaide store.<\/p>\n