FASHION HISTORIAN | STYLING | ART DIRECTION
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(In development) Women in Metamorphosis: Fashioning the Gothic Imaginary
Nineteenth-century French visual culture: drawings, prints, and illustrated periodicals, including graphic satire published in Punch, Le Monde Comique, and Le Journal Amusant; representations of femininity, fashion, and the demi-monde; Gothic and fin-de-siècle culture; the femme fatale in French literary and visual imagination, with evolving interest in early twentieth-century reinterpretation of the femme fatale as a symbol of feminine power, specifically considering how fashion manifests and absorbs the ideology and imagery of the femme fatale.
(Thesis) Reimaging Australiana: Jenny Kee, Linda Jackson, and the Emergence of an Australian Fashion Language
This thesis explores the creative partnership and careers of two notable Australian designers, Jenny Kee (b.1947) and Linda Jackson (b. 1950), whose work helped shape Australian fashion in the 1970s and early 1980s. Focusing predominantly on the period from the convergence of their creative practices in 1973 to their divergence in 1982, the thesis addresses a formative decade in which Kee and Jackson shaped a distinct Australian fashion aesthetic, inspired progressive change within the Australian fashion industry, and brought Australiana overseas.
Challenging Australia’s reliance on European fashion authorities, they experimented with fashioning elements of “Australiana,” denoting that which is emblematically Australian, into textiles and garments both formally and conceptually, pushing the conventional boundaries of Western dress and collapsing the divide between art and fashion. Although their work at times entered ambiguous territory, raising questions of appropriation, it also played an important role in promoting a multicultural vision of Australia, increasing visibility for First Nations Australian artists, makers, and models, and diffusing the cultural inferiority complex embedded in the Australian psyche, through a proud embrace of native landscape, flora, fauna, and Australian culture.
Through object analysis of garments held in major Australian museum collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, alongside archival research, fashion press, and interviews with the designers, this research traces how their work responded to the cultural and artistic optimism percolating in 1970s Australia and helped fashion modernity. Responding to a dearth of color in Australian fashion and seeking to emulate Australia’s bright light and rich natural palette, their early designs from this period reveal vibrant compositions, detailed appliqués, and impressive handwork. Museum dress collections, in conjunction with contemporary newspaper and magazine accounts, demonstrate the intricate ways in which both Kee and Jackson adapted quintessentially Australian motifs into avant-garde knitwear and haute couture ensembles. Meanwhile, the archival photography collection at the Powerhouse Museum reveals how they strategically used photography to document their work, construct a public persona, and align the brand with a specific vision through harmonious compositions, positioning themselves as the face of the Australiana movement and as representative of the modern woman.
Despite being united under the Flamingo Park label, Kee and Jackson developed distinct yet complementary practices. Jackson focused on one-off, couture-oriented garments informed by technical experimentation and detailed handwork, while Kee embraced reproducible textile designs, avant-garde knitwear, and commercial opportunities through products beyond fashion. Their designs achieved significant recognition in Australia, Europe, and the United States through coverage in periodicals, including Vogue Australia, Italian Vogue, Australian Women’s Weekly, Women’s Wear Daily U.S, and The New York Times, as well as in museum collections, and through commercial and retail partnerships that helped disseminate Australian motifs into mainstream markets globally.
In situating Kee and Jackson within a broader history of Australiana and artistic exploration, this thesis argues that their work was instrumental in establishing an Australian fashion language that was aesthetically unparalleled, culturally progressive, and internationally legible, whilst simultaneously navigating complex terrain in their quest for an authentic, new Australian design language. In doing so, it positions both designers as foundational figures in the assertion of Australian fashion and as trailblazers, not only within Australia but globally.
Walking the Line: The Ballet Flat as a Symbol of Modernity, Constraint, and Class in the Twenty-First Century
This research considers the ballet flat as a cultural artifact, tracing its evolution from the nineteenth-century dance slipper to its current status as a contested symbol within contemporary fashion. Drawing on fashion history, cultural theory, and dress studies, I explore how this seemingly simple shoe mediates ongoing negotiations around femininity, class, mobility, and the body. By situating Claire McCardell's mid-century adaptation of the ballet slipper within a longer history of footwear as a site of gendered constraint and aspiration, I analyze how twenty-first-century revivals—from luxury minimalism to celebrity "balletcore" styling to ballet-sneaker hybrids—continue to reinscribe delicacy, refinement, and aspirational ease. Ultimately, the project argues that the ballet flat's enduring cultural resonance lies in its capacity to aestheticize discipline and privilege while presenting as an effortless and accessible fashion item.