Monday, March 12, 2012

Professor Daphne Brooker



Daphne Brooker, fashion teacher, died in February aged 84. I must admit I had never heard of her until I read her obituary on the same page as that of Araminta, Lady Aldington.

For 30 years she taught at [what is now the University of] Kingston, stressing the need for teachers to give as much emphasis to the doing, making & organising, and to the skills of craftsmanship, manufacturing & marketing of goods, as to analysis, criticism & the acquisition of knowledge.

A true heroine for feminists.

What really caught my eye however was a photo taken in the early 1950s when she had a brief & personally unfulfilling career as a model, which included a front cover of Vogue.

Sloping shoulders!