unique inspiration

Jenny Kee, Sunday Life Magazine October 2011

'It's amazing to come full circle; here I am bringing back the 30s scarf we wore in the 60s
with my designs from the 1980s into 2011'.... Jenny Kee

Oh Jenny Kee you are amazing. 

Last Sunday I nearly choked on my cup of tea when I saw the front cover of The Sun Herald's Sunday Life Magazine completely covered with colour, pattern and life... all emanating from the radiant Jenny Kee. For those who don't know, or remember Jenny Kee, she was the face of the 1980s in Australia. She arrived back onto the local scene in 1972 after living for more than a decade in good ol' London Town, and shocked the boring and staid Sydney fashion world by opening a store called Flamingo Park in The Strand Arcade. 

I just thought, 'Whatever I do with this shop it's got to be absolutely unique'. And that is what London gave me - being original'. 

Like Florence Broadhurst's wallpaper designs of the 1970s, Jenny revolutionised the 80s textile world by creating a new + fresh aesthetic that spoke to Australian colour palette, visualising native flowers and plants in patterns that were bold, big and full of 80s excess...

And look at her today. Jenny is still the same amazingly unique woman that burst onto the scene in the 80s. Colourful, creative, and patterned to an inch of her life, she is still making it all work, without a shoulder pad in sight. She is a true inspiration for me, and as such I went all fluro yesterday.... well.... on my hands anyway. 

Happy Hands, October 2011

Credits: The Trip that changed me, Article from The Sun Herald's Sunday Life Magazine, October 23 2011, pg. 12-13, Images from 'A Big Life'  by Jenny Kee (Lantern)