{{Short description|British-based fashion model, fashion editor, and fashion designer}} {{EngvarB|date=July 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Jennifer Hocking | image = Jennifer Hocking.jpg | caption = Jennifer Hocking by Brian Duffy - August 1960 | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1929|10|4}} | birth_place = Sydney, Australia | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2011|5|27|1929|10|4}} | death_place = UK | occupation = Model, magazine editor, fashion designer | spouse = Nigel Howland (divorced) }} '''Jennifer Hocking''' (1929–2011) was an Australian-born British-based fashion model in the 1950s and early 1960s, who then became fashion editor of ''Harper's Bazaar'' and ''Queen''. Whilst there, she gave Anna Wintour her first magazine job. Hocking then pursued fashion design, before rediscovering success as a mature model in the 1990s, when she was described as a "grande dame" after her appearance in Mario Testino's shoots for Burberry.
==Early life== Hocking was born in Sydney, where she went to art school. In 1952 she borrowed the fare from her brother and sailed to the United Kingdom to pursue a career as a fashion model.<ref name=gobit>{{cite news |last1=Horwell |first1=Veronica |title=Jennifer Hocking obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/16/jennifer-hocking-obituary |accessdate=14 August 2017|work=The Guardian|date=16 June 2011}}</ref> Whilst there, she married a male model and actor called Nigel Howland. The marriage eventually ended in divorce.<ref name=gobit/>
==Career== ===Modelling, part 1=== Hocking began her career as a model by doing fashion shows, but eventually became a leading photographic model, basing her style on that of a leading American model, Anne St. Marie.<ref name=castle>{{cite book|last1=Castle|first1=Charles|title=Model girl|date=1977|publisher=Chartwell Books|isbn=9780890091296|page=[https://archive.org/details/modelgirl0000cast/page/44 44]|language=en|url=https://archive.org/details/modelgirl0000cast/page/44}}</ref> In 1956 Hocking was named London Model of the Year by ''The Daily Express''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Entwistle |first1=Joanne |last2=Wissinger |first2=Elizabeth |title=Fashioning Models: Image, Text and Industry |date=2013|publisher=A&C Black |isbn=9780857853103 |page=195 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crmMhdqcS5wC&pg=PA195|language=en}}</ref> Although she could present as aloof and sophisticated, she also had an approachable quality,<ref name=castle/> which enabled her modelling career to be most successful during the transitional period between the 1950s and the mid-1960s, as she resembled a young career woman rather than one of the haughty ladies favoured for 1950s fashion photography.<ref name=gobit/>
Along with Paulene Stone, she became a favoured model of Terence Donovan and David Montgomery.<ref name=gobit/> Brian Duffy photographed her with the author Frank Norman.<ref name=gobit/> However, Hocking became aware that her maturity was working against her, as teenage models began to be more popular, and she ceased modelling.<ref name=gobit/>
===Journalism=== Hocking's first job after quitting modelling was as a stylist for ''Fashion'', before being transferred to ''Harper's Bazaar'' and succeeding Molly Parkin as fashion editor.<ref name=gobit/> She stayed on in 1970 when Harper's Bazaar merged with ''Queen'' to become ''Harper's & Queen''.<ref name=gobit/>
Whilst at Harper's & Queen, Hocking was challenged by the small budgets and tiny fashion department, but hired a young 21-year old Anna Wintour as her editorial assistant as she was impressed by Wintour's precocious professionalism.<ref name=gobit/> In 1974, Hocking was asked by the Fashion Museum, Bath to choose that year's defining looks for their Dress of the Year collection, for which she selected male and female knitted ensembles by Missoni.<ref name=rl>{{cite book |last1=Lester |first1=Richard |title=Dress of the year |date=2013 |publisher=Antique Collectors' Club |isbn=9781851497256 |pages=62–63}}</ref> A couple of years later, Hocking helped style Joanna Lumley for some episodes of ''The New Avengers''.<ref name=gobit/>
Following the decision of Harpers & Queen to try and challenge British ''Vogue'''s place at the top of the British fashion magazine hierarchy, Hocking decided to leave, and was succeeded by Min Hogg despite Wintour trying for the job.<ref name=gobit/>
===Fashion design=== After leaving ''Harper's & Queen'', Hocking became a fashion designer for Christopher Carr Jones's mail-order company, and then started up her own equivalent business.<ref name=gobit/>
===Modelling, part 2=== In the 1990s, Hocking resumed modelling as a professional mature model, and came to the attention of Mario Testino, who had been seeking out other models that had retired in the mid-1960s in order to develop the narrative of his photographs for Burberry.<ref name=gobit/> Along with Tania Mallet, Hocking became one of Testino's favourite models as a representation of the "early-60s Englishness" that enhanced the Burberry brand.<ref name=gobit/> In 2002, ''The New York Times'' described Hocking and Mallet as "grande dames" who looked as good in Burberry fashion as their co-star, the young and glamorous Elizabeth Jagger.<ref name=gobit/><ref>{{cite news|last1=Sherwood|first1=James|title=For the makers of cool, a hip vs. heritage dilemma|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/09/news/for-the-makers-of-cool-a-hip-vs-heritage-dilemma.html|accessdate=14 August 2017|work=The New York Times|agency=International Herald Tribune|date=9 October 2002}}</ref>
==Later life and death== Hocking died in 2011 of cancer at the age of 81. She was survived by her daughter Wendy, also a model, and her son Julian.<ref name=gobit/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hocking, Jennifer}} Category:1929 births Category:2011 deaths Category:Australian female models Category:Models from Sydney Category:British female models Category:20th-century British women journalists Category:20th-century Australian women journalists Category:Australian fashion journalists Category:Australian people in fashion Category:Australian women fashion designers Category:British women fashion designers Category:British fashion stylists Category:20th-century British designers Category:Deaths from cancer in the United Kingdom Category:Australian expatriates in England Category:British magazine editors Category:Australian magazine editors Category:Australian women editors Category:British women magazine editors Category:20th-century British journalists Category:20th-century Australian journalists