Mary Quant, creator of the miniskirt, is staging an Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, so ladies, if you have your original miniskirts still in the loft, now is the time to dig them out to put on show!
Bring me your miniskirts, Mary Quant says as she urges middle-aged women to help 'landmark' V&A exhibition
Do you have any Mary Quant clothes in your wardrobe?Credit:
PA Wire
Mary Quant has asked middle-aged women to send in their miniskirts to help a new "landmark" V&A exhibition.
Women who came of age in the 1950s and '60s may have the missing
pieces stashed away in a wardrobe, as a complete archive of the
pioneering designer's clothing was never kept.
The 200-piece exhibition will be drawn from the V&A’s extensive
fashion holdings, which includes the largest collection of Mary Quant
garments in the world, as well as the designer’s personal archive and
important international loans.
Dame Mary said she did not realise as she created her designs that
they would define the fashion of a generation of women, or imagine that
she would need to hold back an archive for a V&A exhibition.
She explained: “It was a wonderfully exciting time and despite the
frenetic, hard work we had enormous fun. We didn’t necessarily realise
that what we were creating was pioneering, we were simply too busy
relishing all the opportunities and embracing the results before rushing
on to the next challenge!
The Butterick patterns allowed dressmakers on a budget to make Mary Quant's designs
"Friends have been extremely generous in loaning, and in many cases,
donating garments and accessories to the V&A which they have
lovingly cherished for many years, so it will be fascinating to see what
else will emerge!
“I am enormously grateful to have been involved with so many talented
people whose contribution to that ground-breaking, revolutionary and
memorable era will also be recognised.” Curators have asked women across
the country to help uncover the lost designs; from hot pants, miniskirts
and trousers for women to swimwear, accessories, tights and make-up.
The most coveted missing items from the exhibition include one-off
pieces from her famous Bazaar boutiques, as well as experimental PVC
designs, and swimwear. Those who could not afford to buy her clothes
could still be included; the museum wants examples of home dressmakers
who used the designer's patterns.
The fashion guru defined the fashion of a generationCredit:
Keystone/Getty Images
Opening
in April 2019, the exhibition will focus on the years between 1955 and
1975, when the designer revolutionised the high street with her
subversive and playful designs for a younger generation.
Specialist curator Jenny Lister said she was looking for the stories
behind the clothes, which were worn by fashionable women of all incomes
and backgrounds.
She told The Telegraph: “We are really looking for stories behind the
designs. We've had a lovely collection of clothes from a lady who lived
in Malaysia in the early ‘60s with her husband and bought things
through mail order from the shop in Kings Road and shocked everyone in
Malaysia where she lived with the striking new designs.
The window of one of Mary Quant's Bazaar shops. She is looking for clothing from the shops to use in the exhibitionCredit:
Michael Putland/Getty Images
“We have also had a dress that someone bought by saving up from her
holiday job, and talked to ladies who have worked for Mary Quant and
have a dress which was worn to an interview at the shop on Kings Road.”
The story
of Mary Quant is particularly relevant to young women today, Ms Lister
said, explaining: “People would really connect with that story today -
she really opened that field for people to start a career in fashion.
She spoke to students at the Royal College of Art and showed you could
make a sucesssful business out of fashion. She helped the British export
campaign and became the face of swinging London.
“The way people use digital media now is the same as the
opportunities hat Mary and her team were taking advantage of by using
the new, emerging magazine industry for young women..They were very
forward-thinking in using new models, young models and broke the mould
for fashion.”
A decade before Biba stormed onto the fashion scene, Mary Quant’s
Bazaar boutique began to blow away the fashion cobwebs and usher in a
style movement which, arguably, we’re still enjoying today; her quote
that ‘a woman is as young as her knees’ has never rung so true (just ask
Brigitte Macron).
The King’s road store which Quant and her husband-to-be Alexander
Plunket Greene opened in 1955 became a hub for the youthquake which was
beginning to sweep London.
The shop
was run in a way some would still consider revolutionary now, staying
opening late for parties and becoming a hub where you went as much to
show off your new outfit as to purchase it- many must now be buried away
in attics waiting to be rediscovered.
The Butterick pattern
Quant’s name has often been placed beside those of the great Parisian
couturiers- and debate ensues to this day about whether it was her,
fellow Brit Jean Varon or André Courrèges who initiated the idea of the
mini skirt- but her approach was different and she wanted her
refreshingly modern aesthetic to be accessible to everyone, including
the girls admiring photos of Twiggy or Jean Shrimpton in her designs.
To that end, Quant began a diffusion line called Ginger Group and
made her pieces available as Butterick patterns so that they could be
run up on sewing machines in homes across the country.
Now the V&A wants to see the fruits of Quant fans’ creativity.
The Wet collection
It wasn’t just Quant’s mini skirts which represented a revolutionary
new take on women’s style; she ushered in the use of unexpected, daring
fabrics and details which adjusted all expectations of how clothes
should look. It was perhaps 1963’s ‘Wet’ collection which was the most
seminal of these, using PVC, which was then in its early development, to
create slick raincoats, skirt suits and hats which nodded to the
space-age style which Parisian designers like Paco Rabanne and Courreges
were also exploring. John Lennon’s wife Cynthia was amongst the early
adopters of the look.
The Peter Pan collar
As well as masterminding new
items for a new generation of women with a carefree, youthful approach
to their wardrobes, Mary Quant reframed old favourites.
Take the Peter Pan collar which had previously been associated with polite femininity.
In Quant’s hands, it became a graphic addition to sleek shift dresses and colourful blouses.
The mid-Sixties were the height of Swinging London and Quant’s place
at its epicentre so it’s perhaps understandable that the popular Peter
Pan-collared designs were not saved for the Quant archives, instead
making their way onto the backs of cool girls across the capital.
Knits, swimwear and accessories: the full wardrobe
Mary Quant replaced elegance and politesse with edginess, daring and
run-for-a-bus-ability, not just in skirts and dresses, but plenty of
other wardrobe essentials, too.
The V&A is calling on women to dig out Mary Quant shoes, knits or
swimwear which they might have purchased to get the full Quant ‘look’.
Her most famous footwear includes colourful pixie boots,
flower-splashed block heels and pop art Mondrian-inspired boots (Yves
Saint Laurent also created a Mondrian dress in 1965).
Meanwhile, bikinis were skimpy and brightly printed and knitwear was less cosy, more a vehicle for abstract patterns.
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