Daphne Elizabeth Brooker (née Beacon, 8 June 1927 – 2 February 2012) was a British model, costume designer, and a professor and head of fashion at
Kingston University for three decades, where she had "a leading role in the teaching of fashion".
Early life
She was born Daphne Elizabeth Beacon on 8 June 1927 at the Ormond Maternity Home, 29 Blantyre Street,
Chelsea, London, the elder child and only daughter of Charles Beacon, a chauffeur, and his wife, Mabel Elizabeth Beacon, née Mann (1891–1972), who were living in
Battersea
Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park.
History
Batter ...
at the time.
She grew up and was educated in
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...
in Surrey, her family having moved there when she was five years old.
She went to
Kingston School of Art from 1941 to 1945, followed by the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
(RCA), where she received an ARCA diploma in design in 1948.
Career
On leaving the RCA in 1948 she started work as an art teacher.
Brooker appeared on the front cover of Vogue in 1952,
and appeared in the magazine several times, shot by photographers including
Cecil Beaton,
Anthony Denney
Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, ...
and
Norman Parkinson
Norman Parkinson (21 April 1913 – 15 February 1990) was an English portrait and fashion photographer. His work revolutionised British fashion photography, as he moved his subjects out of the studio and used outdoor settings. While servin ...
.
However, she found modelling boring, and worked as a costume designer for some years.
She first taught at
Walthamstow School of Art
Walthamstow School of Art was an art school based in Walthamstow, north-east London. It eventually became part of Waltham Forest College
Waltham Forest College Waltham Forest College is a stand-alone Further Education College in North East Lon ...
in east London, where her students included the fashion designers
James Wedge
James "Jimmy" Wedge (born 1939) is a British fashion designer, milliner, and fashion photographer.
Early life and education
Wedge was born into a poor working-class family. Having little education and never having taken an exam, he joined the Bri ...
,
Marion Foale and
, the film director
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films in the main were liberal adaptation ...
and the musician
Ian Dury.
In 1962 Brooker joined Kingston College of Art (in 1970, it merged with Kingston College of Technology in 1970 to create
Kingston Polytechnic
, mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress"
, established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute
, type = Public
, endowment = £2.3 m (2015)
, ...
) as a lecturer, becoming head of fashion in 1963, and a professor in 1981.
When she retired in 1992, the fashion department was "one of the most successful of its kind — in securing jobs for its graduates in the competitive world of design and in having paved the way for how fashion courses were subsequently taught."
Her students included the designers
John Richmond,
Richard Nott, and
Soozie Jenkinson;
Helen Storey, professor of science and fashion at the
London College of Fashion
The London College of Fashion is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, in London, England. It offers undergraduate, postgraduate, short courses, study abroad courses and business-training in fashion, make-up, beauty-therap ...
; the BBC costume designer
Jane Hartley; and the journalist
Glenda Bailey
Dame Glenda Adrianne Bailey DBE (born 16 November 1958) is a former editor-in-chief of ''Harper’s Bazaar'', a monthly fashion magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. She was in this position from May 2001 to 2020.
Early life
Bailey was ...
.
Personal life
On 21 July 1948, at
Battersea Register Office, she married fellow RCA graduate, Maxwell Gervase Anderson Brooker (1927–2008), who was then a second lieutenant in the
Royal Army Education Corps, and later became an artist and art teacher.
They had one child, Caroline Sarah Brooker (born 1956), after which they bought a house in
Canonbury in Islington, north London.
Later life
In her later years she lived on Canonbury Road, Islington, London, and died at
University College Hospital
University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the Fitzrovia area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with University College London ...
on 2 February 2012, of
bronchopneumonia and
chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooker, Daphne
1927 births
2012 deaths
Models from London
British female models
British costume designers
People from Kingston upon Thames
People from Battersea
Academics of Kingston University
Alumni of the Royal College of Art
People from Canonbury