Sonic Editions

The First Supermodel

Born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Jean Shrimpton lead an ordinary life until a chance meeting with the American director Cy Endfield led her to enrol in a modelling school. In 1960, at the age of seventeen, she graced the covers of Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair and Vogue. A figure that shocked and delighted, Shrimpton became the world's first supermodel, travelling and working across the globe. It was while she was in Australia that she debuted what was, at the time, an incredibly controversial outfit: a white, above the knee shift dress. It caused a sensation; to some it was a symbol of the new decade and the liberation it promised; to others it was a symptom of slipping standards and moral turpitude.  Today, Shrimpton leads a quiet life in the south of England, but the world will never forget her pioneering contributions and ethereal beauty.