Jean Shrimpton Biography
Jean Shrimpton is an English model, actress, hotel owner/innkeeper, and antique shop owner/antique dealer. She is considered to be one of the world’s first supermodels and was an icon of Swinging London. Shrimpton has appeared on numerous magazine covers including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Elle, Ladies’ Home Journal, Newsweek, and also Time.
She was named one of the 26 best models of all time by Harper’s Bazaar and TIME named her one of the 100 most influential fashion icons of all time in 2012. She is namechecked (as “Jeannie Shrimpton”) in The Smithereens song “Behind the Wall of Sleep” (1986).
Jean helped launch the miniskirt. She also made a two-week promotional visit to Australia, sponsored by the Victoria Racing Club, and a local synthetic fiber company who brought her out to promote a range of new dresses made of Orlon. Shrimpton was paid an enormous sum of £2,000 at the time.
Jean Shrimpton Age
Jean Rosemary Shrimpton is 76 years old as of 2018. She was born on 7 November 1942 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. She is also referred to with other names such as Jean Cox, The Shrimp, Jeannie Shrimpton.
Jean Shrimpton Family | Jean Shrimpton Parents
Shrimpton has a younger sister Chrissie who is also an actress. Chrissie has been linked to both Mick Jagger and Steve Marriott of the Small Faces. She has not shared any information about her father and mother.
Jean Shrimpton Education
Jean attended St Bernard’s Convent School, Slough. She then enrolled at Langham Secretarial College in London when she was 17. Jean had a chance meeting with director Cy Endfield led to an unsuccessful meeting with the producer of his film Mysterious Island (1961). He then suggested Shrimpton attend the Lucie Clayton Charm Academy’s model course.
Jean Shrimpton Picture
Jean began modeling at the age of 17 in 1960. She has appeared on the covers of popular magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and Vogue.
Michael Cox Jean Shrimpton | Jean Shrimpton Husband
Shrimpton married photographer Michael Cox in 1979 at the register office in Penzance, Cornwall when she was four months pregnant. The couple owns the Abbey Hotel in Penzance, now managed by their family.
Terence Stamp Jean Shrimpton | Terence Stamp and Jean Shrimpton
Jean also had a very much celebrated romance with actor Terence Stamp.
David Bailey Jean Shrimpton
Jean began dating fashion and portrait photographer David Bailey after they began working together, and finally had a four-year relationship that ended in 1964. When the couple began the affair, Bailey was still married to his first wife Rosemary Bramble. Bailey left Bramble after nine months to be with Shrimpton.
The lovebirds’ relationship is dramatized in a BBC Four film, We’ll Take Manhattan (26 January 2012). In the film, Karen Gillan plays the part of Shrimpton.
Thaddeus Cox
Cox was four months pregnant when she got married to Michael. The same year, they welcomed a son, Thaddeus Cox.
Jean Shrimpton Career
Her career rose to prominence through her work with photographer David Bailey. The two met in 1960 at a photoshoot that Shrimpton was working on with photographer Brian Duffy for a Kellogg’s corn flakes advertisement. Then, she was an unknown model. Brian old Bailey she was too posh for him, but Bailey was undeterred.
Her first photo session with Bailey was in 1960 (either for Condé Nast’s Brides on 7 December 1960 or for British Vogue). Shrimpton started to become known in the modeling world around the time she was working with Bailey. She has also stated she owed Bailey her career, and he is often credited for discovering her.
Jean was Bailey’s muse and his photographs of her helped him rise to prominence in his early career. She was widely reported to be the “world’s highest-paid model”, the “most famous model” and the “most photographed in the world” during her career. Shrimpton was also described as having the “world’s most beautiful face” and as “the most beautiful girl in the world”.
In June 1963, she was named “Model of The Year” by Glamour. Shrimpton contrasted with the aristocratic-looking models of the 1950s. This was by representing the coltish, gamine look of the youthquake movement in the 1960s Swinging London. She was also reported as “the symbol of Swinging London”. She broke the popular mold of voluptuous figures with her long legs and slim figure, and was nicknamed “The Shrimp”. Shrimpton is also known for her long hair with a fringe, wide doe-eyes, long wispy eyelashes, arched brows, and pouty lips.
Jean Shrimpton Melbourne Cup
Jean caused a sensation in Melbourne when she arrived for the Victoria Derby wearing a white shift dress. The dress was made by Colin Rolfe which ended 5 in (13 cm) above her knees.
Shrimpton wore no hat, stockings or gloves, and sported a man’s watch, which was unusual at the time. She was unaware she was to cause such a reaction in the Melbourne community and media. She was photographed in 1971 by Clive Arrowsmith, again for British Vogue.
Jean Shrimpton Net Worth
The veteran model’s net worth is not yet revealed.