When talk among my peers gets around to the homegrown fashion designers of the 1960s, one name that resonates still today is that of Mary Quant. Her name will be forever associated with the mini skirt, although over the years the origin of that garment has remained clouded in much controversy. More of that later.
For me though, the fact that Mary began her business in the late 1950s is the more important aspect of her story. There is truth in what became known as the ‘swinging sixties’ was already well under way in the 1950s and nowhere more is this the case than with Quant.
Born in Blackheath, South London in 1935, Mary was from good Welsh stock. She attended Goldsmiths College to study illustration; her parents not too keen on her getting involved in a career in fashion. Her calling was to prove too strong however and after gaining her diploma, she began working as an apprentice milliner, at ‘Erik’ on Brook Street in the West End of London. She had by then, also began designing and then manufacturing clothes.
Whilst at Goldsmiths, she met her future husband, Alexander Plunkett Greene and they married in 1957, later having one son, named Orlando, in 1970.
Alexander and Mary along with their business partner Archie McNair opened the store ‘Bazaar’ on the Kings Road in 1955. It had ‘Alexander’s’ restaurant in the basement of the shop, which was run by Plunkett Greene.
Mary’s designs immediately captured the mood of the time. Being of the same age as most of her customers, meant that Quant had the inside track on what they really wanted to wear. She took the decision to design and make more of the clothes she sold. It was a decision that quickly bore fruit and by 1966 she was working with eighteen manufacturers.
Her clothes were relatively affordable and it is acknowledged that she introduced the ‘Chelsea look’ which reflected that part of town. Very mod and very London.
Among the most popular and best selling items on her rails, were T-Shirts, black stretch leggings – to be teamed with knee high patent boots – and colourful, boldly patterned skinny rib knitwear.
Her innovative window displays also caught the eye of the passing footfall and her reputation quickly grew just as the burgeoning 1960s youth quake exploded.
A second store followed, designed by Terence Conran, opened in Knightsbridge in 1957, and by 1963, Quant began exporting to the US and worldwide, her brand now well and truly established. She herself, with her Vidal Sassoon bob haircut, was now a very familiar face to the wider public.
At the height of her fame in the mid 60s, the mini skirt became the garment most associated with her. She later declared that she didn’t invent the mini skirt, but rather her customers did, as the demand for shorter and shorter skirts become impossible to ignore.
In truth other designers were also developing the design, most notably John Bates in the UK and Andre Coureges in Paris. Whoever got there first is still debated to this day, though it is ackowledged that Quant named the garment. After her favourite car…
Quant then introduced a range of patterned tights, ideal to be worn with the short skirt. She also developed a make up range that proved immensely popular.
Her impact on the fashion industry was recognised in 1966, when she received the OBE. Suitably she arrived to accept the award wearing a miniskirt. 1966 also saw the publication of her book ‘Quant by Quant’.
She continued to design in the 1970s and 80’s, but her profile not as high as once was, as other new designers took the lead. However, in 1990, the British Fashion council bestowed upon her, their ‘Hall of Fame Award’.
Alexander Plunkett Greene died in 1990 and in 2000, her Mary Quant cosmetics range was acquired in a Japanese buy out.
Today, the name of Mary Quant is still recognised the world over, and a reappraisal of her work is well under way, with rumours of a museum retrospective of her career and work lined up for 2019.
And about time too say I.
THE MUMPER of SE5
