I make the most of every single moment because I could have died.
And from that moment on, I've made the most of every single moment, including the tragic
things that have happened.
You know, everything is your teacher.
It's just the way you see things.
Hi, I'm Jess Rowe and this is the Jess Rowe Big Talk Show, a podcast that skips the small
talk and goes big and deep.
From love to loss and everything in between, I want to show you a different side of people
who seem to have it all together in these raw and honest conversations about the things
Fashion icon and artist Jenny Key helped create an Australian fashion identity.
She was a part of the cool crowd in the swinging sixties, hanging out with and dressing Mick
Jagger, Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles in London.
And wait till you hear about her encounter with John Lennon.
Later, her Australia designs became world famous when Princess Diana was photographed
wearing her hand knitted jumper with a koala emblazoned on the front.
It's one of my great loves and I leapt at the chance to talk with one of our design
Jenny, I look at you and you fill my heart with joy, the colour, the exuberance, you're
I hope you're noticing as well, I'm wearing your print here, Jenny.
I am noticing that you're wearing a black oval.
Which was one of your iconic designs, which we'll get to shortly.
But Jenny, let's talk about style and who has it.
Where does that come from?
Where does your style and your uniqueness come from?
It doesn't come from anywhere you're born with it.
It actually doesn't come from anywhere.
I mean, you're born with that and it's a sort of, it's an instinct that you have and
you can say what style is, you can say all the things you can say, but you either have
And, you know, I was so lucky to be born with style because my mother was incredibly
My father was very stylish.
I mean, he used to wear circuito suits, gold Rolex watch, and he's, you know, amazing
gangster looking hats.
But the funniest thing was we lived in a really rundown semi in North Bondi.
And this was before Bondi was cool, wasn't it?
Yes, it was working class Bondi.
God, you know, I mean, that's where all the refugees went to live.
That is where you went to live if you were poor.
Bondi was never fancy.
Bondi was just very working class and Bondi was rough.
And Bondi Beach, where I went to school, was a rough school with no Asians.
Everything was white bread.
How did you deal with that?
Because you confronted quite a bit of racism as a young girl, didn't you?
I was growing up in the 50s, so of course, you know, I mean, it's such a joy for me to
see Bondi the way it is now with every culture, every colour, every, every different type
of restaurant, everything that is not white.
And I can say that because you know what?
I'm a seventh generation white.
On my mother's side, her English part came out with the third fleet, I think.
So I can boast being seventh generation with one quarter of me.
So I can say white all I like because I'm white and I'm Italian and I'm actually yellow.
But what sort of things would kids say to you though, Jenny?
Well, it's not that they said anything.
It's just on cracker night.
I got a cracker thrown at me at the age of five and, you know, watch out, chink.
And it went straight into me and I've still got the scar and it burned a hole in my body.
And you know, I thought, oh, that's what having this face does.
I was actually determined that I was not going to let that get in the way.
And I worked out a strategy of, you know, I had a sort of natural personality, I guess,
but I just used it.
I used it to transcend my looks when I was young.
And then as soon as I was a teenager, I realized that being Asian was actually an asset.
So I capitalized on that too.
And I'll show you, you know, that attitude.
You know, I thank my parents, both of them aren't here now.
And I actually thank them.
I give thanks to them every day.
I say thank you, mum and dad, for having me because, you know, I've got a strong body
and I've got strong genes and I'm very vital at the age of 76.
You ooze vitality.
Just talking with you.
I mean, we're talking through a Zoom screen, but I literally can feel your aliveness through
And tell me too, Jenny, because I know you were very determined.
Basically you fought back though, didn't you?
Well, I fought back in that I'll show you.
And I fought back in the way that I was determined that I was going to use being different as
my biggest asset.
You know, as soon as I knew that mum would let me, she gave me a dressmaker and I knew
that I could make things that would look like no one else.
When you say you fought back, I used it as an asset and I had a tough veneer.
And as you say, you used it as an asset and you caught people's eye.
Please share with us the story of when you caught John Lennon's eye.
Of course, that song was written for me.
Oh, no, claim it.
But tell us that story, Jenny.
You know, I was determined that I was going to meet him.
So that's the sort of thing when you say you fought back.
Well, I just became very determined.
You know, it was really hard to meet the Beatles, but we managed it.
We got into the motel room, it was the Sheraton Motel.
We couldn't get up because they had police everywhere.
Hey, I'm in there.
So we all went and jammed the lifts after they finished their concert.
We'd run back and we started jamming the lifts and there they had to come up in the stairwell
and that's how I got to meet John Lennon and the rest is history.
I'm telling you any more than that, don't I?
Oh, come on, please, I'd love to hear a bit more because he noticed you and he basically
didn't they say the security went, no, off you go, off you go to everyone, but then weren't
you allowed upstairs?
Yeah, no, no, because he did.
He did notice me in the lift and said, come up to a party.
So I guess I was probably his first little sort of thought about beautiful Asian girls
because he went on to, of course, fall in love madly with beautiful Yoko.
Look, you've got to think of being 17 and being young and just being excited and just
to be in their company and to be in his company.
We spent a really fabulous night together after everyone had gone home and it was just,
you know, when you do click with people and I did, I clicked with him and I have to say
that I did click with John Lennon, you know, he was funny and he sang and it was just the
most gorgeous night and, you know, like I hadn't been with lots of boys and there was
something sort of very, I don't know, there was something pure about being a first time
groupie. Can I say that?
Of course you can.
And I tell you what, it's starting at the top, Jenny.
Oh, no, I don't start anywhere at the bottom.
Yeah, no, no, no, no, that's not true.
It just was something that I was determined to do and I did.
Of course you did.
With John Lennon, did you stay in touch with him?
No, but I did see him in London a second time, but he was with his wife, you know, he was
jamming at the Speakeasy where I was working and, you know, we remembered each other.
I remembered him, but he remembered me.
So that was lovely, but it wasn't going to go anywhere after that.
It didn't have to.
You do these beautiful things once in your life and you don't have to do them again and
again. I mean, I wasn't going to be destined to be with someone like John Lennon and nor
did I want to be.
Because I worked at the Chelsea Antique Market and because I had all the girls coming in
and the lives they led having to be the girlfriend of the pop star, I would not have wanted that.
Let's talk then about those Chelsea Antique Markets.
I've seen pictures of you looking phenomenal in these sort of peasant, sort of ethnic
dresses. And I mean, you were the ultimate cool kind of it girl before there was an it
girl and you were sort of selling vintage couture to rock stars and their partners,
Yeah, you've done your homework, Jess, and you deserve to know how amazing that little
It was just never to be repeated, ever to be repeated because it was a tiny little Aladdin's
cave. It had chains with the most exquisite, exquisite V&A.
Everyone wanted a V&A bias cut dress and we used to get them through Vern, my beautiful
style mentor, and you ask, you know, where did your style come from?
Well, you were born with it, but it takes a style guru to bring it out of you.
And Vern was the most amazing, stylish guy. All the pop stars always used to look at what
Vern had on. If the girls looked at what I wore, you know, Vern had the best crushed
velvet, because we used to sell them crushed velvet pants, so tight that the boys used
to have to lie down and zip up their flies.
And then didn't Mick Jagger, didn't he get into those crushed velvet pants?
Yeah, but Mick wasn't the most stylish. Who was the most stylish was Keith. Keith was
really ethnic boho and he just, you know, when he put a bandana around his head or he
wore a sort of, maybe it was from Morocco, velvet with gold embroidered sort of jacket
and crushed velvet pants, and then they'd tie sort of bias scarves around their hips
and they'd have Moroccan belts and incredible jewelry. You know, Keith was the one with
the style. You know, Mick was, you know, amazing and flamboyant. You know, I've got a story
about him wanting this Schiaparelli jacket and complaining because it was 10 pounds,
because he had no idea what he was looking at.
And what about Jimi Hendrix? Because that was also someone that you dressed.
Yeah, but he was the King Peacock. Keith was just divine, but Jimi, he had that sort of
color and that sensuality and he had style. He had style in that gypsy way. He was the
King Peacock. He was beautiful. He had a beautiful heart. You know, we all used to work down at the
Speakeasy, this nightclub where everyone came, like every pop star in America, England,
you know, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton. Amazing. Jenny, I want to be there with you wearing
these extraordinary clothes. It's so incredible to hear you describe it all. What about though,
you move from there back to Australia and you began more of your creative journey. You moved
to the Blue Mountains and something happened to you and to your little girl Grace, didn't it,
during this time? Yeah, we'd only been living there for five weeks. Grace was 22 months old
and we were unlucky enough or we were lucky because we survived, but yeah, we both were in
the Granville train crash and we'd only been living in the mountains for five weeks and I
was late for the train and so I'm running down the steps, which I think they captured beautifully in
the documentary Step Into Paradise. They really captured that running down the stairs late and
the guard is saying, because I didn't like to go into, even the five weeks that I was traveling by
train, I always liked to travel in the third carriage because I kept thinking that if there
was ever an accident that the first would be impacted first, but I was running late,
so the guard said get into the first carriage and that's how we got into the first carriage.
If I'd gone into the third carriage, I wouldn't be here because no one survived the third carriage.
The huge steel concrete and brick bridge crashed down on the carriages.
One was squashed flat underneath and others ripped apart like cardboard boxes.
Medical teams were standing by to wriggle into the crushed compartments
and do what they could for the trapped passengers. Sometimes that wasn't very much.
It was the most shocking accident. It was a sort of life changer because number one,
I saved Grace's life because she'd been running around. As kids that are 22 months old do,
they don't want to sit on you for the whole trip, but by one and a half hours I just said look,
you're going to sit on me and you're not going to move and I had her like that.
I was holding her like that when the accident happened. All these sequences, we were not going
to die in that accident and so many did and that leads you on a very, very big question
about why. I guess it was a life changer for me and it was a life changer for me creatively.
Let's go to that question why, Jenny. How did you make sense of what it was that meant you
and Grace survived? It took a long time because I suffered a lot of injuries of which I now know
that those injuries have led me on the path of really having to look after myself. I chose
alternative ways to treat my disc that was going to be operated on and the jaw was going to be
operated on because I couldn't open my mouth. Those two things, I was going to be under the knife
and I sought alternative ways to treat. Now, I'm not going to say to anyone,
if my leg had to have been amputated, it would have. And if I'd had to have an operation because
none of the alternative therapies worked, I would have. But I sought the path of acupuncture,
osteopathy, physio, all these amazing treatments that long term, it's taken a long, long time
time to make your muscles and your ligaments strong from the accident that I suffered,
but I've done it and I do it. I don't say you've done it because if I don't exercise,
I will always be in strife. But that's one thing the accident did and I'm so grateful
that something like that, you're not grateful that something like that happens to you,
but it's a wake up call to know that you are alive and this is your precious human body and
you have to look after it. The fact that I saved Grace's life, why was I holding it one minute
before? I still say it to myself, but these days I feel that I had some sort of protection around me.
That's what I feel at the time I felt it. There was certainly a protection around the two of us
because we did survive it and so many didn't. You say as well, Jenny, that it had an impact on you
creatively. How did it impact your creativity? My nerves were shot. No, I just moved to the
mountains so I spent quite a lot of time just walking in the bush and painting. I didn't
really see them as paintings, they were designs really in my way because I'd never been to art
school so it just sort of started pouring out of me these designs directly from being in the bush.
Linda and I loved going into the bush. That's what I did as my therapy, walking in the bush
and sitting at the table and doing acupuncture. That was what I did and boy, it just sort of
poured out. Things just naturally came out. What my calling was, I guess, because up until then I'd
been designing knits that were sort of jumpers with little motifs on them and koalas and all of that.
What I think is so special, you'd go for those walks through the bush, you'd paint, you'd create
but then you shared that with all of us and you mentioned there Linda Jackson who was very much
your collaborator and designed some incredible things with you. The strength of your connection
as women really was quite something and perhaps you could share with us why that is so important,
that sort of female spirit and camaraderie. Yeah because it was just obvious that when I first
laid eyes on Linda and we clicked and we had this love of 50s fabrics and I saw a little collection
of hers and I just loved what she was making. She was making beautiful little shorties and panties
and little bra tops and just everything was so sort of cutesy and 50s and she couldn't have been
a man. She was Linda and she was Linda looking like a glamorous film star with her Titian red
hair, curly hair and we both wore glasses and she was stunning and all my life my greatest
comrades have been women but it's been a natural thing. Like Jermaine was in London writing her
book and she was doing it all intellectually but we just loved each other and we collaborated so
well together and you know there was that thing and I guess it's because of the pop world and how
the boys were the princes and I hated that. I loved being with the girls and I used to think
god you girls have got so much more than just being the girlfriend of that pop style. You know
why? Just females when they come together and they work together and they're creative together
look I don't question it. It's just what it was. You know Linda and I were asked once are you both
feminists and we sort of couldn't really answer because yeah of course we've been feminists all
our lives. It's just been a natural thing, a natural thing. I love a story that I read Jenny
about you and Linda going to Paris and you were both dressed in your incredible creations and you
walked into a restaurant and you got a standing ovation from all of these fashionistas because
you just walked in and looked so phenomenal. Yeah well you've got to think this was Milan.
1977 at the end of the year the Granville train crash was at the beginning of the year and there
we were in Paris and London and New York but first was Milan and Milan was the fashion city then.
You know Karl Lagerfeld had his boyfriend Jacques de Bache. They were all there. Oh fantastic
photographers and all these different people. Nellie Bellati had thrown this party and yeah
we walked in with our colour and everyone jumped up on the table in just great Italian exuberance
and clapped us because we looked like we'd come from another planet and Anna Piagi who's the
great fashion dame of all time, she did a spread for us in Italian Vogue and she called it Fashion
Arrives from Another Hemisphere. She just saw the Waratah and the Sturt's Desert Pea and kangaroos
and aboriginal art she saw it as so exotic. This was all 1977. It was like a rainbow
getting into the room they were starting to clap and say ah who are these creatures.
These couple of dames from Sydney in their funny outfits. You know it's history. The Italians never
knew where Australia was and then they see these exotic pink flamingos walking into this fancy
restaurant and they just went crazy. It was just such a I don't know I guess when you are original
you don't really know that you are sort of thing because that's what you do. And you are Jenny a
true original. But I don't say that with ego because being an original also has its problems.
You know I'm quite eccentric and I don't drive. I mean I don't do anything that's practical and
you know it does have its problems. Yeah but who wants to be practical when you're surrounded by
such beauty and gorgeousness and Carl Lagerfeld you mentioned him. He used your print for his
first ever collection for Chanel. Yeah I let him use it for Chanel and it was his very very first
show with using the name Chanel. Yeah 65 garments went down the catwalk in Opal and he did shoes in
them and the beautiful Chanel bag. Yeah it was a moment. That is my goodness a moment and a half.
Another extraordinary moment of course was when Princess Diana wore one of your jumpers with the
koala on the front when she was pregnant with Prince William. But that's what was so lovely
is that she was pregnant with a koala on her tummy and it captured every magazine and newspaper
because it wasn't digital then around the world and because she looked so beautiful
because she was you know seven and a half months pregnant and she was glowing and
she was healthy and she had this beautiful koala on her and that was another moment of magic.
Could you quite believe it Jenny? It was the same time as Carl Lagerfeld was using the Chanel
design and it was just like oh isn't that wonderful. You know like look I thought all
these things were great. Of course I did I mean you know but I was just sort of moving fast and
I was just taking everything in my stride. Because you actually got to meet Princess Diana when she
came to Australia didn't you? Yeah because she made sure the Governor General invited me and
hubby Michael came and we had an incredible night and there was only about 40 people there. So it
was a very very very private sort of dinner and we did have fun and we did talk a lot about shoes
and we did talk about Manolo because he was a fantastic friend when I was in London.
And what was Princess Diana like? I mean there's not many people who could say that they've sat
down with just a handful of other people and had a great chat about fashion and life with someone
like that. Well she was animated with me. She loved it because I guess she probably might have
found it harder to talk to dignitaries and things but with me she could talk about clothes and she
loved knits. That's the other thing she really loved knits. And then when we hit on the shoes
and talking about Manolo you know she was just completely animated and natural and I was calling
a die and it was a beautiful night. It was another beautiful night. I didn't sleep with her but
it was it was a really it was a night where I clicked we clicked together. Yeah.
Just talking to you it does infuse me with so much joy and enthusiasm because you very much
Jenny strike me as someone who you make the most of every single moment. You're not going to let
life pass you by. No. I make the most of every single moment because I could have died
and from that moment on I've made the most of every single moment including
the tragic things that have happened. You know everything is your teacher. Your children are
your teachers. The tragedies that happen to you in life are your teachers. It's just the way you see
things and if you take it all in and think of it just as your tragedy or your happiness or your
it's just the most transforming thing is to send it out so that everything that happens to you
isn't just about you. It's a human condition. Suffering is a human condition. Happiness is a
human condition. So if you can see everything in the world as being not everything to your own
experience. Seeing it in a bigger picture. Seeing the bigger picture of the suffering that's happening
in Europe right now. That's how you develop compassion. That's what my Buddhist teacher
a Buddhist teacher told me that you develop compassion by your pain not being your pain.
Your pain being a universal pain. A universal conditioning and that's how you really think
other people are suffering like me and worse than me. Yeah so that's been a big teaching for me.
Jenny was that part of how you I don't want to say got through because you never get through
something as terrible as the death of the love of your life. Danton Hughes did that help you
make sense of what happened? Yes it's taken you know it's 22 years since Danton died now
and I really do have a joy of life but you know what I say the love of my life do you know who
the real love of my life was? Who? My mum. My mum. I'm 76 now and I'm looking back on the amazing
relationship I had with Michael who was the most beautiful painter. The most amazing relationship
I had with Danton but who was there throughout all of it was my mum. She was in the shop with me.
I've always been with my mum she's actually the love of my life. Oh Jenny what a beautiful thing
for you to share with us and I have loved every moment of talking with you. You are a national
treasure and I thank you for the joy that you've given all of us and also the way that you I think
have very much created an Australian look and fashion you've helped define our identity
and for that I am so very grateful and thankful. Yeah and look what I'm wearing I'm wearing romance
was born bib and bub everything's Australian on it and I just love this so much and you're wearing
black opal I mean yes let's honour creating a national Australian fashion yeah. Which is
what you have done and that brought me so much joy and continues to so thank you Jenny. Oh that's so
beautiful thank you so much Jess I've loved talking to you. Oh Jenny thank you I've just
adored talking with you. Great pleasure thank you darling. You're the best. Okay bye. Bye. Oh I want
to time travel with Jenny and go back to the 60s with her hang out with her live in her wardrobe
even live in her wardrobe now oh I cannot stop smiling after talking with that phenomenal woman.
Now Jenny has teamed up with Lifeblood and she's created a limited edition bandage
for donors to wear throughout March in support of International Women's Day so why not book
yourself in to donate at a Lifeblood centre near you you can find out where that is by following
the link in our show notes. Now for more big conversations like this one with Jenny I'd love
you to subscribe and follow the Jessro Big Talk Show podcast it means you'll never miss an episode
and if there's someone in your life who you think might enjoy this chat go on share it with them
and if you love this episode with Jenny Key I reckon you'll enjoy my chat with journalist
and author Indira Naidoo. I think we're here to learn and some of those lessons are difficult
lessons but they're all part of that bigger picture and ultimately we want to find what
our purpose is you know why are we here and in loss it's not just acceptance for me it was really
important to find meaning and I think that part of what I've found in that meaning is finding
a greater sense of purpose and why I'm here. The Jessrobe Big Talk Show was presented by me
Jessrobe, executive producer Nick McClure, audio producer Nikki Sitch, supervising producer
Sam Cavanaugh. Until next time remember to live big life is just too crazy and glorious
to waste time on the stuff that doesn't matter.