Jenny Kee’s aunties honoured in her giant ‘song of Sydney’

Designer Jenny Kee’s aunties Una and Marge were born in the early 1900s around Bondi and both worked as couture sewers for her when she opened her colourful Flamingo Park store in the Strand Arcade.

It was half a century ago in 1973, the same year the Sydney Opera House opened and “Step into Paradise” was the sign that hung on the door of the frock shop.

Jenny Kee with giant Sydney Festival inflatables called “The Aunties” and are part of Sydney Festival.Credit: Steven Siewert

“Aunty Marge and aunty Una were the oldest of three sisters in my mother Enid’s family,” Kee said.

“My mum was the fashionista and may have been the matriarch of Flamingo Park, but these two were the true couturier sewers.”

As a way of honouring her female forebears, Kee has created two enormous inflatable sculptures, clad in her iconic Unioz Stripe design, as part of Sydney Festival 2023.

“Flamingo Park was a festival of Sydney every day when it opened 50 years ago this year. That design [Unioz] came after - but I always like having the Opera House and Harbour Bridge included in my song of Sydney ... with the universal eye always looking on,” Kee said.

Kee says the sculptures are more than “five metres tall but larger-than-life” like her aunties, and will grace South Eveleigh’s Innovation Square until January 29.

The giant aunties took more than a year to be designed in New Zealand by LGOP Collective and were manufactured in Sydney by The Inflatable Event Company.

Kee’s trademark knitwear pattern is layered like a trifle of Sydney summer symbols and Australiana; from Bondi to the Bridge, including koalas, opals and even the Opera House itself.

Her designs have appeared on fabrics, paper, ceramics and canvas for more than 50 years, featuring everywhere from the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, to Italian Vogue to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

‘Flamingo Park was a festival of Sydney every day when it opened 50 years ago.’

Designer Jenny Kee

Globally renowned yet determinedly local, Bondi-born and raised Kee, who turns 76 this month, will talk about her aunties with Sydney Festival director Olivia Ansell at an event on January 19 at South Eveleigh.

She has also created a giant colourful “S” sculpture - the festival trademark - which will be moving around the city throughout January for Sydney Festival “selfie” opportunities.

It starts at the Town Hall for Sun & Sea on the Marconi Terrace (Druitt Street Steps) for the first week of the festival, and from January 9 moves will move between Wharf 2/3 and Wharf 4/5 at Walsh Bay.

In week three from January 16, it will be at Darlinghurst Theatre for the Happy Meal performance, then the MCA Lawn for TABU: Parramatta Park for Sydney Symphony Under the Stars on January 21, finishing at Tumbalong Park on January 23.

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