Dr Sylvia Harrison
Sylvia teaches courses in visual culture - "Fashion, Art, and Identity" and "Photography to Post-Photography" - in the Art History Program. A further course on the history of haute couture will be taught in 2004. Sylvia has published on issues in contemporary art in Australia and America. Her major publication to date is "Pop Art and the Origins of Post-Modernism" (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001). At present she is working on a book-length project on theoretical issues in fashion photography.
Making an Appearance: Jean Shrimpton, Derby Day 1965 and the Rise of the "Mini".
On Derby Day 1965, the London celebrity model Jean Shrimpton appeared at Flemington racetrack "hatless, gloveless and stockingless" and in a simple white shift that finished a full four inches above the knee. The inappropriateness of her abbreviated and excessively casual outfit for the regulated and drably conservative social space of the Members' enclosure stunned the assembled crowd and unleashed a wave of controversy (the "four inch furore") that ensured extensive coverage by local and overseas press. Retrospective accounts of this event by Shrimpton and others are unanimous in their perception of the decisive role it played in the rise of the "mini" and, hence, youth-directed phase of fashion. By recourse to existing fashion theory this paper will explore reasons why the "Shrimptom incident" and its attendant publicity - specifically the press photographs - could be seen as a prime factor in the implementation and propagation of a major fashion trend. A further aim of this paper is to examine why these photographs, over others, have assumed iconic status, the particular branch of fashion photography they represent and their links - regardless of how unwitting - with fashion advertising and thus the "art of persuasion."
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