Jenny Margaret Kee, (born 24 January 1947) is an Australian

fashion designer Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applied arts, applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has va ...

Early life

Kee was born on 24 January 1947 in Bondi,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

to a Chinese father and a sixth-generation Australian mother of Italian-English descent. Kee's great-grandparents had migrated from

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

, China, to

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the '' Endeavour'', for ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

during the 1870s gold rush. Kee attended East Sydney Technical College but did not complete her studies in fashion there. At age 18, she left Sydney for London. She started her career in fashion in modelling, at one time featuring as the face of

Canadian Pacific Air Lines Canadian Pacific Air Lines was a Canadian airline that operated from 1942 to 1987. It operated under the name CP Air from 1968 to 1986. Headquartered at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, Richmond, British Columbia, ...

advertisements.

Career

In 1965, Kee moved to London and became involved in the

Swinging London The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in ...

and

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * Buenos Aires Underground, a rapid transit system * London Underground, a rapid transit system * ...

scene, where she sold second-hand clothing to

hippies A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

at the Chelsea Antique Market for Vern Lambert. In 1972 she returned to Australia, and in 1973 opened a fashion boutique, Flamingo Park. and started collaborating with fashion and textile designer Linda Jackson to create a national fashion identity. They formed a partnership creating outfits including bright and colourful pure Australian wool knitted jumpers with fauna and flora emblems. Among them was a knitted koala jumper nicknamed "Blinky" that was owned by

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William, ...

, who wore it to a

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

game at Windsor Castle in 1982. The

waratah Australia’s famous waratah (genus ''Telopea'') is an Australian-endemic genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees, native to the southeastern parts of Australia (New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, and Tasmania). The be ...

also featured strongly in her work. In October 1982,

Karl Lagerfeld Karl Otto Lagerfeld also called Kaiser Karl (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, photographer, and creative director. Lagerfeld began his career in fashion in the 1950s, working for several top fashion hous ...

incorporated a couple of Kee's designs for his first

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...

collection. Kee and Jackson collaborated with artists such as David McDiarmid and Peter Tully, who hand-painted fabrics for Jackson's dresses and provided jewellery to complement her outfits. Located in

The Strand Arcade The Strand Arcade is a heritage-listed Victorian-style retail arcade located at 195–197 Pitt Street in the heart of the Sydney central business district, between Pitt Street Mall and George Street in the City of Sydney local government are ...

in Sydney's central business district, the boutique closed in 1995. In 2006, she published her autobiography and account of her life in the Swinging London scene, titled ''A Big Life''. In May 2012, she launched her first solo show in more than three decades at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia. In 2013, Kee was awarded the Australian Fashion Laureate. In 2015, she partnered with Woolmark to launch an Australian merino capsule collection inspired by her past designs, including the jumper worn by Princess Diana. In March 2016, Kee's work with Jackson was showcased in the National Gallery of Victoria's exhibition on "200 Years of Australian Fashion". In 2018, Kee was appointed an Officer of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

(AO). In 2019 the combined works of Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson were displayed at The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, NSW.

Personal life

In 1977, Kee married Australian artist Michael Ramsden; they divorced after 21 years. She was also in a long-term relationship with artist Danton Hughes, son of the art critic Robert Hughes. Danton Hughes died by suicide in their Blackheath home in 2001. Kee and her daughter Grace are survivors of the

Granville rail disaster The Granville rail disaster occurred on Tuesday 18 January 1977 at Granville, New South Wales, Granville, a western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, when a crowded commuter train derailment, derailed, running into the supports of a ...

. In the 1980s, Kee became acquainted with

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

; in a 2016 interview with ''

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

'', she described the ''

Bardo Thodol The ''Bardo Thodol'' (, 'Liberation through hearing during the intermediate state'), commonly known in the West as ''The Tibetan Book of the Dead'', is a terma text from a larger corpus of teachings, the ''Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation ...

'' as her Bible.

Depictions

Kee features in a memoir by Richard Neville, editor of the Australian satirical magazine '' Oz'', and is portrayed by

Nina Liu Nina Liu (born 15 June 1977) is an Australian actress of Chinese descent. She played Chloe in the television series ''The Secret Life of Us''. Early life and education Liu studied acting at Western Australian Academy Of Performing Arts (WAAPA) ...

in the unreleased British film adaptation of Neville's work, '' Hippie Hippie Shake''.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kee, Jenny 1947 births Living people Australian people of English descent Australian people of Chinese descent Australian people of Italian descent Officers of the Order of Australia Tibetan Buddhists from Australia Australian fashion designers Australian women fashion designers Designers from Sydney People from the Blue Mountains (New South Wales)