6 minute read
The Defiant Daisy
From her Chelsea-based boutique, Mary Quant became the stylistic heartbeat of the Swinging Sixties – but there’s more to her influence than debuting the mini-skirt. She emboldened women with an empowering wardrobe, from top to toe
WORDS: CHRIS UJMA
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Mary Quant and models at the Quant Afoot footwear collection launch, 1967.
© PA Prints 2008
Quant Afoot, a pair of pixie cut boots produced for Mary Quant’s footwear range in 1967, were both innovative and on-trend. Made from plastic – one of the new materials adopted by trendsetting designers in the 1960s – they resembled the Chelsea boot with square heel and toe worn by the Beatles.
Turn them over, and the heels are molded with a daisy motif – the signature Quant brand pattern – causing the wearer to leave a trail of floral footsteps behind her after walking through a puddle. It was a fun and playful detail (values that are quintessentially Quant) and somewhat symbolic, too: at a crucial crossroads for femininity, her fashion enabled women to make their mark on the world.
Quant clothed the female half of the Sixties Youthquake by popularising an array of era-defining statements such as the mini skirt, hot pants, skinny rib sweaters and even waterproof mascara. The self-taught designer emerged (just twenty-something years old) in 1955 post-war London; “A drab and austere landscape, where rationing was still in place,” explains Steph Wood, co-curator of the V&A’s Introducing Mary Quant exhibition.
“In terms of fashion, options for women at that time were very limited: as a girl, you dressed like a child until it was time to dress like your mother, so there was a real gap in the market in terms of self-expression. Quant harnessed the spirit of that younger generation and offered them something that they can’t find elsewhere,” she adds.
In many ways, Quant’s designs were a reaction against the austerity of the time, and the colourfulness of her creations reflect the emerging optimism of that period: growing affluence, social mobility for young people, higher wages and an opportunity for higher education."
There was a whole scene in Chelsea of actors, artists, philosophers centred around the King’s Road in 1955,” Wood puts into context, of Quant’s decision to set up her famous Bazaar boutique. “Like those thinkers, she had a vision for contributing to a new, progressive identity for post-war London.”
She applied that focus to nonconformist street style, which resonates today. “Every London Fashion Week, there is as much focus on what people coming to the shows are wearing as to what is on the catwalk in the actual collections – and that started with Mary Quant, who made London the centre of street style, and cool,” says Wood.
The curator details how Quant used lightweight, stretchy fabric for freedom of movement, so that women could run for buses and go out dancing.
“A lot of those we interviewed talk about wearing Quant’s pieces from day to evening; young working women who would go out dancing after work, in versatile clothing. It was about giving women choice, not creating a homogenous look, and Quant created fashion as a tool for expression, for nonconformity, and for women to compete in life.”
Including herself. At the time, Quant was young, beautiful (which she still is, at 89) and in a landscape with few businesswoman role models, was someone for women to aspire to. The slender designer had a daring Vidal Sassoon bob and daringly pushed the boundaries, while showing women how to carry it off. She was both the architect and the ambassador.
Some of her first collections were incredibly expensive and women had to save up for them, but her followup lines “Took a more egalitarian, affordable approach; ‘fashion for everyone,” shares Wood.
“Her collections were high end, emerging from a couture tradition, yet were ready-to-wear and mass produced. The materials and fabrics that she used were high quality, and she had a team of seamstresses who were very skilled. Some of the garments loaned to the exhibit have been worn by three generations of women in a family, which speaks to how timeless a lot of those designs are, and also how well-made they are. They stand the test of time.”
Mary Quant, photograph by Ronald Dumont, c.1967.
© Ronald Dumont/Stringer/ Getty
Selecting fabric, 1967
© Rolls Press/ Popperfoto/ Getty Images
It has been 50 years since the last major retrospective on Mary Quant, and the interlude had a benefit for Wood and her co-curator Jenny Lister: half a century of hidden gems to unearth. Preceding the exhibition, they issued a #WeWantQuant campaign, urging women to get in touch with their memories and photographs of treasured pieces. 1,000 responded.
One loan to the exhibit is a beautiful, simple T-shaped top with a bold pattern on it, says Wood. “The owner bought it in 1957 straight out of the Bazaar window – and it is such an early piece that it predates Mary putting her eponymous brand label on the garments. It’s one of the earliest pieces that exists.”
Quant also produced publicly available patterns for women to make their own Quant designs at home, for a snip of the price. The V&A obtained a dress created by a lady – an art student at the time – who created one of the Daddy’s Girl designs to wear for her 21 st birthday. This again speaks to Quant’s egalitarian ethos approach that even if you couldn’t afford a Mary Quant, you could make your own, from your own choice of fabric.
It’s why her iconic silhouettes seemed everywhere in London at the time, and her presence didn’t stop at dresses. “Her diversity – cosmetics, hats, undergarments, home dressmaking patterns, even the toy market with the Daisy Doll – are testament to her vision,” enthuses Wood. “This helped establish her as one of the most varied lifestyle brands in the world by the mid- 1970s, and the Godmother of accessible and affordable fashion for all.”
Quant once said, “One of the things I’ve learned is never to horde ideas, because either they are not so relevant, or they’ve gone stale. Whatever it is, pour it out”– and the breadth of her creativity stayed true to that mindset. She produced her own line of makeup and invented ‘Cry, baby’ waterproof mascara. She’s associated with the jersey mini-dress, and was one of the first designers to promote trousers for women (at a time where women were often banned from wearing them in formal settings like restaurants).
There is a misconception that Quant invented the mini skirt, says Wood, though she can be credited with popularising it. “By 1967 it had become a symbol of women’s liberation and London fashion. It was so shocking at the time.” The designer herself even admitted it was “not an invention, but an evolution; women were demanding an ever-shorter style”.
It’s testament to how Quant was reactively listening to her audience, and the notion of giving women choice means the apt timing of Introducing Mary Quant is not lost on Wood: “In the age of #metoo, many women are marginalised and overlooked, which makes it a perfect moment to celebrate a woman who liberated people from convention and dressing like their mother, and gave them opportunities,” she notes, of the exhibition’s pertinence. “Mary could see the ability of fashion to be more than just clothes, and used as an opportunity for liberation, to promote change in women.”
When the V&A launched its ticket sales ahead the exhibition, models and staff who worked with the designer during the height of her fame were in attendance, staging a ‘Quant Revival.’
“When I talked to the women who worked with her, I learnt that she gave opportunities to a lot of those women at a time when nobody else would,” says Wood. “A lot of them excelled within her company, starting in junior positions and within a few years were directors – so she was pushing possibilities through her fashion, but also to her network of women around her. She had this vision of a better future for women.”
The daisy print on the Quant Afoot heel was a fleeting fashion statement, saying ‘I was here’. But the empowering path that Quant and her fashion firebrands traversed was far more profound – and more indelible, too.
Mary Quant, sponsored by King’s Road, shows at the V&A from 6 April 2019 – 16 February 2020. vam.ac.uk/maryquant
Model holding a Bazaar bag c.1959
© Mary Quant Archive
