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Icons of the Americas – the Having worn and been inspired by
Americas costumes Bolivian and Guatamalan cl othing,
accessories and fabrics since the
While Africa had presented the 1960s, Kee knew that she could easily
challenge of a continent made up of 53 capture the essence of the Americas
countries, the Americas with 42 threw but she still needed a key concept or
an even bigger test at Kee: the symbol from which to develop the
costumes would need to represent Americas outfits.
North, Central and South America, al l
with their own cultures and historic Using the red ring theme of energy
backgrounds. and life, Kee e xplored the symbolism
of the colour red.
With the Americas it was much more
diverse in some ways because you had She instinctively painted a graphic
to depict modern America since white Mexico Rose which evolved into a
man’s imprint – then cover the rich striking costume. Kee had found her
ancient world of Indian Americans from central motif.
the Arctic Eskimo, Desert Navajo to the
Jungle Maya. ‘Mexico Rose’ jumping right out of the
— Jenny Kee middle of that vast continent, that
pulsating red ros e, became my totem
Kee and Thornley began tapping into – expressing the heart and soul of the
the wealth of cultural symbols from Americas.
the Americas; the eagle, representing — Jenny Kee
ancient and moder n; corn, the original
plant; the Monarch butterfly, migrating
between North and So uth America, etc
– linking the two continents.
Combined with Rio Carnivale,
Caribbea n salsa, art, jazz, rock ’n’ roll,
legends, monuments, native tribal
inspirations, etc., the costumes
emerged.
Bettine Roynan (of Kee’s costume team) and
Mexico Rose costume design by Jenny Kee Lauriemma (wearing Mexico Rose costume) #
While Kee had had a couple of months
to work on the original concept
designs for the African Goddess
costumes, the deadline for the
Americas was coming up fast and she
would need to have the source
material ready in a matter of weeks.
Words of inspiration for design of
the Americas costumes
In preparation for a main print that
would form the basis of the costumes,
Kee started painting and began a
whirlwind research tour of the culture
of the Americas. From Navajo lands
through to Guatemala, from the
Rockies through to the Andean ranges,
Kee captured a sweep of cultural
images in a series of nine paintings
which became a collage called The
Americas Print . Themes and symbols
included Mexico Rose, Lichte nstein,
Warhol’s Marilyn, Bear Crossing, Salsa,
Reggae, Jazz, Miles, Route 66, Maize,
Rainforest Amazonia, Toucan, Macaw,
Maple Leaf, Eagle, N avajo, Hopi,
Kwakiutl, Ohio Mound, Liberty, the rich
rainbow colours of the Ancient Mayan
Rock ’ n’ Roll Cowgirl costume design by Jenny Kee
world, etc, etc.
Nine paintings in a week, I mean for
me it was unheard of. I was up day
and night doing this. I just knew I
had to do an amazing collage of what
the Americas meant.
— Jenny Kee
Americas performers in the Americas print #
Rock ’ n’ Roll Cowgirl costume, designed
by Jenny Kee **
Rock ’ n’ Roll Cowgirl costume, designed by
Jenny Kee **
Kee then c olour photocopied the
paintings and began to cut and paste
them into a collage for the final fabric
print. Once ‘the Ame ricas’ collage – an
artwork in itself – was complete, it
was sent for printing. Kee’s collage
was a metre square – but the only
printer who could do the job (in
Melbourne) had larger screens (120cm
A view of Jenny Kee Arrivals costumes at the 2000
x 90cm), so Kee had to urgently
Powerhouse exhibition, Let the Games begin
reassemble her perfected a rtwork into
a new collage!
Tee Pee costume designed by Jenny Kee ** Rainforest Amazonia costume, designed
by Jenny Kee **
The images from the collage were a
catalyst for many of the major costumes
creating an explosion of the culture of the
Americas – Tee Pee, Rainforest
Amazonia , Rock ’n’ Roll Cowgirl , Americas
Fiesta, The Liberty Twins became visual
metaphors – ‘Larger than Life ’.
The final printed fabric was the basis
of the hundreds of vibrant performers
outfits that made their way into the
fiery red ring of the Americas.
Magical chain gang – the At one stage, Osmond asked the
workshop volunteers volunteer team to stop work on the
Kee costumes and move on to other
While many of the costumes had been work. That night, a group of
made in Paula Martin's workshop in volunteers 'broke' into the workshop;
the Blue Mountains, the rest of the so keen were they to finish sequinning
work was done at the Eveleigh the Americas Fiesta costume for the
Workshops in Sydney. next morning.
These women were so dedicated.
Because I had this sort of magical
rapport with these amazing volunteer
workers, nothing was too much for
them. They never looked at the clock.
It's quite an incredible thing, and
that's why I think the magic was
there. It was the magic of people
working for something because they
really wanted to, and for the love of
it. There was just this excitement of
being in that workshop….
Volunteer, Barbara Tomba,
— Jenny Kee
applying jewels to the Liberty costume *
Under the supervision of the Costumes
Coordinator, Sue Osmond, volunteers
of every age worked tirelessly on
every detail of the garments from
printing fabrics to sewing sequins.
Volunteers with Jenny Kee (holding up the Americas
Fiesta fabric, Sue Osmond next to Jenny Kee) at
Eveleigh #
The Frida Exotica costume – An elaborate oversize poncho evolved,
design and production of an using symbolic graphics from one of
Americas costume her ‘Americas’ paintings.
Kee knew she could go further. To find
Frida Exotica was created to honour authentic material, she contacted her
the exotic Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. original supplier of Bolivian woollen
fabric, Equadorian, Mario Jurado.
Mario brought in bolts of this stunningly
beautiful coloured wool...all different
shades of reds...a brilliant cyclamen pink,
then a flamingo pink, three more shades
of pinks, all these different shades of
green, yellow, amazing beautiful colours
as we used to use in my shop.
— Jenny Kee
In his garage, Kee found the
remaining bolts of vibrant wools and
braids she had ordered 20 years
earlier. She had been the only one
brave enough to buy and use such
bright and flamboyant colours in
fashion design. Surro unded by these
vividly dyed wools, Kee found the
Design for Frida Exotica costume by Jenny Kee
inspiration for the Frida Exotica
costume was finally realised.
Inspired by traditional costume,
ponchos, gathered skirts, and floral
The energy of this Frida outfit came to
adornment of Guatemala, Bolivia,
life, just sitting in Mario’s room,
Peru, etc, Kee referenced the Mexican
surrounded by all his South American
felt appliqué she had worn and loved
treasures – I’ll never forget it – I just
at London’s Chelsea Antique Market
sat the drawing down…one of my
over 30 years befo re.
favourite drawings…and Jan did the little
face of Frida…to have the fabric, the
graphics and the felt appliqué…it all
started to come together.
— Jenny Kee
Blue Mountains costume makers,
Martin, Somerville and S imcox
interpreted the graphic Frida design
with masterful app liqué techniques.
The inspiration of Kahlo, the great
artist, stimulated the artistry within
Kee and her team to realise the
essence of Frida Exotica .
Meanwhile, Eveleigh workshop
volunteers made red pompoms, based
on the robe of an ancient Mayan
priest, as the finishing touch to the The Frida Exotica costume, designed by
Jenny Kee **
poncho. Milliner Rosie Boylan
constructed the massive Frida
Only weeks before the deadline of the
headdress, using garlands of vibrant
Opening Ceremony, Kee attended a
flowers, topped off with a tiny bright
wedding where she saw a beautiful
pink Guatemalan bowler hat . Martin
young woman with the same celebrated
created graphic floral felt appliqués, as
Frida eyebrows. Explaining that she was
the exotic finishing touch.
desperately looking for a Frida model,
Kee was thrilled to discover that Sally,
There was now only one thing left to
an art teacher, was passionate about
do: find Frida.
Kahlo, and had even written a thesis on
her. With great excitement Kee asked
Sally to become her model, and when
she agreed, Kee knew Frida Exotica
would truly come to life!
Glorious Games – the Opening
Ceremony
The Arrivals section of the Opening
Ceremony proved to be a huge success. To see Africa lead the ‘Arrivals’
The blend of trad itional motifs with segment with that pulsating Mother
daring modern designs hit an emotional shaking and moving was really
note with people around the world. amazing...and it was dynamic and it
seriously wa s black power emerging. It
The vibrancy of Australia’s was very...primal and it was just so
multicultural society was conveyed to fitting that the Great Mother could
the world in the Arrivals costumes of have been out there in front...it was
the Opening Ceremony – setting the just right that it should have been
tone of harmony and celebration which Africa that led it. I felt very moved
marked the Sydney 2000 Olympic when I first saw it.
Games. — Jenny Kee
Jenny Kee with Africa performers #
The images of Jenny Kee wearing her designs, and of design drawings by Jenny Kee were
taken by Pow erhouse photographer s, Sue S tafford and Sotha Bourn, respectively.
* Images of performers, costume workshop staff and volunteers were photographed by Sue
Osmond, and are reproduced with her kind permission.
** Images of per formers wearing costumes (loaned by the Olympic Coordinatin g Authority
[OCA]) at a Myer Centenary of Federation fashion parade in M elbourne are reproduced with
kind permission of Myer Grace Bros and of the pho tographer, Alex Zotos.
Images on top of first page: Disc Goddess and Rainbow Circle costumes, designed by Jenny Kee.
*** Image of parachutists forming Olympic rings over Sydney , reproduced with kind
permission of the OCA.
# Images reproduced with kind permission of Jenny Kee, Chloe Simcox, Greg Somerville,
Paula Martin and Jan Thornley.
The Museum wishes to warmly acknowledge the generous contributions of Jenny Kee and
Jan Thornley in the preparation of this case study.
Jenny Kee (centre) with performers
in Americas costumes *
Design for Harvest Goddess costume with annotations, by Jenny Kee
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