Nearly 50 years after the last Mary Quant retrospective, tomorrow the V&A will open its doors to the highly anticipated exhibition celebrating all aspects of the legendary British designer's legacy. Focusing on the years between 1955 and 1975, the museum's latest fashion installation will explore the two decades in which "Quant revolutionised the high street, harnessing the youthful spirit of the '60s and new mass production techniques to create a new look for women."
Quant was integral to London's Swinging Sixties scene and championed affordable fashion for the everywoman. Her colour-pop hues, graphic patterns and sky-high, thigh-climbing mini skirts are well documented, but the exhibition feels more relevant than ever.
Statistics published by the Fawcett Society in 2017 show that 41% of men aged 18-24 say that a woman who is drunk and wearing a short skirt is "totally or partially to blame" for their sexual assault. Sure, wearing a mini skirt in 2019 may not feel like a radical act, but when slut shaming still takes place both in the street and in court, there's no underestimating the continued significance of the mini in wider society.
"In this age of #MeToo, with many women historically feeling marginalised and overlooked, the timing couldn’t be more perfect to celebrate a woman whose trailblazing career inspired and liberated women from conventional and stifling rules and regulations – and from dressing like their mothers," exhibition curators Jenny Lister and Stephanie Wood tell Refinery29. "Now is the perfect time to recognise a woman who was a powerful role model for working women and whose vision and steely determination enabled her to succeed in a male-dominated environment."
Back in June 2018, the V&A launched a campaign called #WeWantQuant, encouraging people to send in any Mary Quant-related pieces, from photographs, makeup and magazines to original garments. "With over 1,000 replies to date, the response has been overwhelming," they explain. "We’ve included 50 photographs of the women wearing their beloved Quant clothes. It’s a testament to how much Quant meant to women that they kept them for so many years."
"Many women came forward with Quant clothing made for special occasions like their weddings and we have also uncovered rare examples such as a very early, boldly printed top bought by a research scientist to meet her geologist fiancé returning from a trip in Antarctica, and a PVC raincoat worn and lovingly kept by two generations of women in the same family – underlining the longevity of many of Mary's designs. We are also featuring a dress homemade from a Mary Quant designed dressmaking pattern for the wearer's 21st birthday."
Speaking with four of the women who submitted their photographs to the V&A for the exhibition, we heard stories of just how much Quant and her designs meant to young women of the '60s and '70s. Quant's pieces meant sexual liberation, a launchpad out of humdrum suburban life, and rebellion against one's parents. Click through to see just how much the iconic designer meant to these women.
Nicky Hessenberg is 76 and had many different jobs, from working on House & Garden to at the BBC, as a photographer’s assistant, managing a book shop and making textiles.
"I was about 19 and dancing with my first proper boyfriend who was training to be an architect at the Architectural Association. The photograph was published in an architectural magazine, so we must have been at a party or dance, probably at the AA. I'm wearing a purple silk puffball evening dress.
As a child and teenager, I was incredibly shy, so going to parties and dances was agony for me, usually resulting in a migraine. My mother bought the dress as a bribe by trying to give me more self-confidence, which it did (plus the boyfriend who helped as well). To have a dress from Bazaar was the pinnacle of fashion ambition – the Mary Quant name and label was such an icon at that point and I felt that I had joined the sophisticates. All through my childhood I, like so many others just after the war, had to wear clothes handed down either from my older sister or parents’ friends handing clothes on, so to have something new AND by Mary Quant was really something to treasure.
She was SO original. At that stage of our teenage lives, we were expected to dress like our mothers – although in fact my mother was very stylish and never wore a hat like most mothers – so [she enabled us] to break out and wear clothes that were seen to be outlandish to some more conservative tastes but so innovative and original and flattering."
Marilyn Cole Lownes is 69, and was a Playboy Bunny Girl at the original Playboy Club on London’s Park Lane. She was the only British Playboy Playmate of the Year.
"This black and white photo was taken in my home town of Portsmouth in 1965 when I was 15 years old. My mum bought me the Mary Quant dress I am wearing in the photo in a boutique in Brighton— we took the train there on a day trip just to buy it!
For me the beauty of the dress was the fact it was made of cotton gingham but in brown and white, which made it very unusual. It was knee length — not a minidress — and the white border at the neckline and cuffs made it feel very proper and a bit uniform-like, which I loved — being from a naval port and then of course my going on to wear the iconic Playboy bunny costume.
I have several standout memories of wearing my Quant dress: firstly wearing it on a Friday night in the local trendy pub while drinking potent scrumpy cider and ending up snogging on Southsea Common!
Mary Quant was the heart of the Swinging Sixties. It helped change my life in the best ways possible."
Heather Tilbury Phillips is 76, and a former board member of Mary Quant Limited with responsibility for marketing and PR.
"This photo was taken outside Mary Quant’s Ginger Group showroom in South Molton Street in 1973. I was probably 30 and I'm wearing an edge-to-edge jacket with matching full-length skirt in Liberty Varuna wool print with a silk georgette tie-neck blouse. I wish I'd kept it! I wore the same style in a different Liberty print with a cream blouse when I married in September of that year.
What did I love about Mary? Her determination, belief in her instincts yet her modesty and diffidence, her sense of humour and the fact that she treated us as family."
Tereska Peppe is 80 and retired.
"This photograph was taken the summer of 1960 at Chelsea Studios, where we were living at the time. I'm wearing a grey dress with broderie anglaise trimming, and a black straw boater. Both items were bought at Bazaar in July 1960 for my husband's twin brother's wedding. I bought the dress and my husband saw the hat in the window of Bazaar and bought it because he loved it. My strongest memory is that I always felt good in it.
In the '60s there was no one like her, she was out there on her own, and her clothes were stunning and wearable. I had a sailor suit of hers that I wore so much, I wore it out. I can't think of any other item of clothing that I have had through the years that I loved so much.
Unfortunately I didn't still have the dress, only photographs of it, but the hat I kept for sentimental reasons and because it was in such good condition. My husband started a portrait of me in both the dress and hat, but it never got finished – nevertheless we do have it framed and up in our house."
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Aries Designer Sofia Prantera On Subcultures Thriving In The Age Of Instagram
Alexander Wang's New Uniqlo Collection Will Keep You Cool
Brace Yourself, Denim Underwear Is Going To Be All Over Coachella