Remember the time

Matronly Melbourne racegoers scowled and jeered beneath prim hats, gloves and pearls. Even glamorous model Maggie Tabberer was allegedly horrified. It was Derby Day 1965, magazine. She was here for a two-week tour with her boyfriend, actor Terence Stamp, but after her Derby Day appearance, Melbourne society shunned her. On Cup Day, after a word from her sponsors (the Victoria Racing Club and an Australian fabric mill), Jean stepped out in a more conservative, grey three-piece suit which nonetheless skimmed stubbornly above her knees. “I think you should dress to please yourself,” she told reporters. “I feel Melbourne isn’t ready for me yet.” But the horse had bolted, so to speak. At just 22, Jean had sparked a revolution in Australia. “All the kids who I was supplying said, ‘That’s what I want to look like’,” Prue told a television reporter. “Overnight, we were cutting two inches off the skirts, and the next week another two.” The following year, according to magazine, mini dresses were all the rage at Flemington.