{{Short description|Australian fashion designer (born 1947)}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox fashion designer |name = Jenny Kee |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AO}} |image = Jenny Kee.jpg |caption = Jenny Kee in October 2012 |birth_name = Jennifer Margaret Kee |birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1947|01|24}} |birth_place = Bondi, New South Wales, Australia |death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) --> |death_place = |education = |label_name = Flamingo Park |awards = Officer of the Order of Australia (2018)<ref name=AO>{{cite news| first=Jennie|last=Curtin |url=https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/5451433/fashion-flair-and-fauna-jenny-kee/|title=Fashion designer made an Officer in the Order of Australia|newspaper=Blue Mountains Gazette|date=11 June 2018|access-date=3 April 2025}}</ref> |known_for = |occupation = Fashion designer }}
'''Jenny Margaret Kee''',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vogue.com.au/celebrity/designers/jenny-kee/news-story/422d4561155fae7a8a991285ebd04bb7|title=Jenny Kee|date=1 July 2011|newspaper=Vogue|access-date=25 May 2020}}</ref> {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AO}} (born 24 January 1947) is an Australian fashion designer.
==Early life== Kee was born on 24 January 1947 in Bondi, New South Wales, Australia, to an Australian Born Chinese father<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/essay-jenny-kee/9n5piwyiy|title=SBS Food: Essay: Jenny Kee|first=Jenny|last=Kee|date=30 April 2013}}</ref> and a sixth-generation Australian mother of Italian-English descent. Kee's great-grandparents had migrated from Guangdong, China, to Cooktown, Queensland during the 1870s gold rush.<ref name=scmp>{{cite news|newspaper=South China Morning Post|url=https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3024098/why-australias-original-fashion-influencer-jenny-kee-still|title=Why Australia's original fashion influencer Jenny Kee is still going strong after five decades|first=Patty|last=Huntington|date=26 August 2019}}</ref> Kee attended East Sydney Technical College but did not complete her studies in fashion there. At age 18, she left Sydney for London.<ref name=scmp/> She started her career in fashion in modelling, at one time featuring as the face of Canadian Pacific Air Lines advertisements.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://maas.museum/inside-the-collection/2011/07/01/jenny-kee-chanel-princess-di-and-a-passing-reference-to-david-bowie-2/|title=Jenny Kee, Chanel, 'Princess Di' (and a passing reference to David Bowie)|first=Glynis|last=Jones|date=12 July 2011|publisher=Museum of Applied Arts and Science}}</ref>
==Career== In 1965, Kee moved to London, England, and became involved in the Swinging London and underground scene,<ref name="ABC"/> where she sold second-hand clothing to hippies at the Chelsea Antique Market for Vern Lambert.<ref name="Nicholson2019">{{cite book|author=Virginia Nicholson|title=How Was It For You?: Women, Sex, Love and Power in the 1960s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M51lDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT239|date=28 March 2019|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-0-241-97519-0|page=239}}</ref><ref name="BruzziGibson2013">{{cite book|author1=Stella Bruzzi|author2=Pamela Church Gibson|title=Fashion Cultures Revisited: Theories, Explorations and Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-NJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT83|date=4 December 2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-47472-9|page=83}}</ref> In 1972 she returned to Australia, and in 1973 opened a fashion boutique, Flamingo Park.<ref name="ABC"/><ref>Newstead, Adrian, ''The Dealer is the Devil: An Insider's History of the Aboriginal Art Trade'', Brandl and Schlesinger, 2014, pp. 462, 502</ref> 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, who wore it to a polo game at Windsor Castle in 1982.<ref name=scmp/> The waratah also featured strongly in her work.<ref name=Nice2000>{{cite book |title=State of the Waratah: The Floral Emblem of New South Wales in Legend, Art & Industry |last=Nice |first=Rosie ''(ed.)'' |year=2000 |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens |location=Sydney |isbn=0-7347-2024-6 |page=56}}</ref> In October 1982, Karl Lagerfeld incorporated a couple of Kee's designs for his first Chanel collection.<ref name=scmp/> 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 in Sydney's central business district, the boutique closed in 1995.<ref name=scmp/>
In 2006, she published her autobiography and account of her life in the Swinging London scene, titled ''A Big Life''.<ref name="abcinterview"/> 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.<ref name=scmp/> 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".<ref name=scmp/> In 2018, Kee was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).<ref name=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.<ref name="abcinterview">{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/tv/sundayarts/txt/s1771403.htm|title=Interview Transcripts: Jenny Kee|last=Trioli|first=Virginia|date=22 October 2006|work=ABC Television – Sunday Arts|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=12 February 2010}}</ref> 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.<ref name=scmp/><ref name="ABC">{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/schoolstv/australians/kee.htm|title=Australians: Jenny Kee (1947-)|work=ABC|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=12 February 2010}}</ref> In the 1980s, Kee became acquainted with Tibetan Buddhism; in a 2016 interview with ''ABC News'', she described the ''Bardo Thodol'' as her Bible.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r91UmRZPQyM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/r91UmRZPQyM |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live|title=Designer Jenny Kee on fashion, John Lennon, and finding meaning in tragedy|work=ABC News|access-date=25 May 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
==Depictions== Kee features in a memoir by Richard Neville, editor of the Australian satirical magazine ''Oz'', and is portrayed by Nina Liu in the unreleased British film adaptation of Neville's work, ''Hippie Hippie Shake''.<ref name=scmp/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [https://www.jennykee.com/ Official website] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kee, Jenny}} Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Australian fashion designers Category:Australian people of Chinese descent Category:Australian people of Italian descent Category:Australian women fashion designers Category:Designers from Sydney Category:Officers of the Order of Australia Category:People from the Blue Mountains (New South Wales) Category:Tibetan Buddhists from Australia