The woman who made summer sexy, Australian bikini queen Paula Stafford is marking her 100th birthday with a low-key nursing home celebration due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Key points:
- Paula Stafford wanted to be an architect but was told at school that she should pursue something more feminine
- By 1964, her fashion empire was the second biggest industry on the Gold Coast
- Mrs Stafford has outlived her husband and four children and will celebrate her 100th birthday with her grandchildren
"I hadn't heard the name bikini in the early days. I called mine a two-piece," the Gold Coast icon laughed as she engaged in her last ABC interview in 2014.
Frenchman Louis Réard invented the bikini in 1946, but Ms Stafford popularised the controversial swimwear design and put a burgeoning holiday destination on the map.
In 1952, a woman wearing a Stafford bikini was ordered off a beach for being immodest, and the designer turned it into a PR stunt by sending five models to the beach in bikinis.
"I never paid for publicity, the media came to me," Ms Stafford said.
"I mean, it was quite incredible … I just had a name that was an entry to everything."
A mother to four children within five years, Ms Stafford and husband Beverley began a beach hire business from their home in Cavill Avenue.
"People kept wanting to buy what I was wearing, and I decided it might be a good idea to have an extra income so I started making clothes to order," she said.
Building an empire
By 1964, the Stafford fashion empire of swimwear, daywear, evening wear and menswear was the second biggest industry on the Gold Coast, after sand mining.
"You name it, we made it … once I made an outfit for a nun — nothing was forbidden," Ms Stafford said.
Lydia Pearson, one half of famed Queensland fashion label Easton Pearson, said Ms Stafford was an extraordinary fashion and business pioneer who sold her designs in Selfridges in London along with high-end boutiques in New York and Tokyo.
Born to design
Born in 1920, Paula Robertson pursued physics, maths and chemistry at Melbourne Girls Grammar.
"I wanted to be an architect, and this headmistress said I should think of something more feminine, hence dress design came into the picture," Ms Stafford said.
Ms Pearson said the design icon would have been a great architect.
"Maybe that's why she could cut such a mean bikini," she said.
Ms Stafford has outlived her husband and four children and will celebrate her birthday at a Gold Coast nursing home with her grandchildren.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMib2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA2LTEwL2ljb25pYy1nb2xkLWNvYXN0LWJpa2luaS1kZXNpZ25lci1wYXVsYS1zdGFmZm9yZC0xMDB0aC1iaXJ0aGRheS8xMjMzNTc4NNIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjMzNTc4NA?oc=5
2020-06-09 20:40:50Z
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