IT WAS audacious, bright, very Australian and spelt an end to a bland and conservative approach, but they changed the way the fashion world portrayed what emerged from Down Under.
When the girl from Bondi fused fashion and art using the finest Australian wool and incorporated our most recognisable emblems, the name Jenny Kee was destined to go down in history.
She spelled the end to a conservative and bland approach, and changed the way the fashion world portrayed Down Under.
But, rather than simply retreating to the Blue Mountains after 40 years of being one of our most remarkable fashion industry influences, Ms Kee has created a new collection with The Woolmark Company.
She will present this Australian Merino wool capsule collection at the Women of Wool lunch at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show (ASWS) on Friday, July 17.
While it is reminiscent of her Australiana knitwear from the 1980s, Ms Kee has taken a new journey into how today's garments are manufactured. In the days when she hit the world stage after Princess Diana wore her iconic koala knit during her 1982 Australian visit while pregnant with Prince William, hand knitting was the preferred method.
She would employ up to 40 knitters at a time, who could each have up to 30 balls of yarn to knit one jumper. The latest collection, 'A New Beginning', differs from these original jumpers as digital knitting allows her to include an abundance of colour through a streamlined manufacturing process. Rather than a koala knit, Ms Kee has created a 'Blinky Bill' version.
Ms Kee's career started when she sold retro clothing in 1960s London. Having studied fashion design in Sydney, the neutral approach to Australian fashion at the time was in stark contrast to her love of exotic colour.
When she returned to Australia, Ms Kee opened the Flamingo Park boutique. This brought her together with textile designer, Linda Jackson, and together they created the colourful jumpers. The waratah was a regular feature in her work.
After surviving the Granville train disaster in Western Sydney in 1972 with her daughter, Grace, Ms Kee began to paint. The vibrant Australian birds, flowers, opals and tropical fish became her inspiration and she translated her paintings onto exotic silks and in the 1980s, created her own Jenny Kee label. This was not lost of the likes of fashion bible, Vogue, or fashion house, Chanel.
"As someone who made her name designing quality knitwear it has been a joy to bring my beloved knits back to life," Ms Kee said.
Working with The Woolmark Company has meant she has been able to work with the finest Italian natural yarn and utilise modern knitting technology in a completely new way.
There are only 50 pieces in each style in the new capsule collection. Ms Kee said they represented her most favourite iconic designs – 'always inspired by Australia's unique nature'.
Through The Woolmark Company, Ms Kee has connected with one of the world's most important spinners, Zegna Baruffa. The company is one of Australia's single largest buyers of fine and superfine Merino wool. The Zegna Baruffa premium superfine Merino wool yarn complements her signature style, allowing for an extravaganza of colours and highlighting Merino wool's superb colour fastness. From there, her designs went to The Woolmark Company's partner factories in Hong Kong to bring the collection to finished life.
