Mary Quant
Encyclopedia
Mary Quant OBE
FCSD
(born 11 February 1934) is a British
] fashion designer and British fashion icon, who was instrumental in the mod fashion movement. She was one of the designers who took credit for inventing the miniskirt
and hot pants. Born in Blackheath
, London, to Welsh parents, Quant brought fun and fantasy to fashion in the 1960s. As creator of the mini skirt and hot pants, she showed a generation how to dress to please themselves. Her instant success made traditionally cautious designers change their attitudes and make their designs appeal to the newly important youth market.
Ernestine Carter
, one of the most authoritative and influential fashion writers of the twentieth century, wrote: 'It is given to a fortunate few to be born at the right time, in the right place, with the right talents. In recent fashion there are three: Chanel, Dior and Mary Quant'. The 1960s were the right time for Quant. The decade was characterized by the rise of youth culture in Britain. Young people of all classes had independence, employment and disposable incomes. Style and image were everything, visible on television, purchasable in shops, available to all. Glamour was no longer an elusive quality epitomized by heroes and heroines on the cinema screen: 1960s' role models were pop singers, models, sporting figures, television stars. If the 1960s was the right time, 'Swinging London
' was the right place. Pop culture influenced what people wore as well as what they listened to.
Quant was not afraid of novelty and experimentation. Some of her most popular designs were sweater dresses with plastic collars, balloon-style dresses, and knickerbockers and stretch stockings in all colours and patterns. Other typical designs included knee-length white plastic lace-up boots, tight sweaters in bold striped or check patterns and plastic raincoats. These clothes became part of the 'London Look' and 'Mary Quant' became synonymous with trendiness: and famous for her work on pop art
in fashion.
, before moving to London to work as schoolteachers. Quant went to Blackheath High School
, then studied illustration
at Goldsmiths College. After gaining a Diploma in Art Education from Goldsmiths, Quant began an apprenticeship as a couture
milliner.
She met her future husband and business partner, Alexander Plunkett-Green, at Goldsmiths. They were married from 1957 until his death in 1990 and had a son, Orlando.
In November 1955, she teamed up with Plunkett-Green and a former solicitor
, Archie McNair, to open a clothes shop on the King's Road
in London
called Bazaar, where the best-sellers were small white plastic collars to brighten up a black dress or t-shirt and black stretch stockings. In 1957, they opened the second branch of Bazaar.
Following the positive reaction to a pair of "mad house pyjamas" designed for the opening and dissatisfied with the variety of clothes available to her, Quant decided to make her own range of clothing. Initially working solo, she was soon employing a handful of machinist
s, and by 1966 she was working with eighteen manufacturers concurrently.
, which she is arguably most famous for, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s. The miniskirt was developed separately by André Courrèges
and John Bates
, and there is disagreement as to who came up with the idea first. Like most fashion, the short- and ever-shorter skirt was evolving already among individual fashion-minded young women: The designers who adapted it just helped spread the style and, in Quant's case, gave it a name. Quant said: "It was the girls on the King's Road who invented the mini. I was making easy, youthful, simple clothes, in which you could move, in which you could run and jump and we would make them the length the customer wanted. I wore them very short and the customers would say, 'Shorter, shorter.'" Quant named the miniskirt after her favorite make of car, the Mini
. She loved the car so much, she had one designed especially for her.
Of all Mary's designs, the mini skirt is by far the most widely recognized and the one for which she is still famed. Although André Courrèges had modelled above-the-knee couture designs in the early 1960s, Mary's designs were revolutionary: it was suddenly acceptable and even mandatory to show a lot of leg - such was the power of affordable fashion.
In addition to the miniskirt, Mary Quant is often credited with inventing the coloured and patterned tights
that tended to accompany the garment, although these are also attributed to Cristobal Balenciaga
or John Bates.
covers.
In 1988, Mary Quant designed the interior of the Mini
(1000) Designer (Originally dubbed the Mini Quant, this name was switched when popularity charts were set against having Quant's name on the car). It featured black and white striped seats with red trimming. The seatbelts were red, and the driving and passenger seats had Quant's signature on the upper left quadrant. The steering wheel had Quant's signature daisy and the bonnet badge had "Mary Quant" written over the signature name. The headlight housings, wheel arches, door handles and bumpers were all nimbus grey, rather than the more common chrome or black finishes. Two thousand were released in the U.K. on 15 June 1988, and a number were also released on to foreign markets; however, the numbers for these are hard to come by. The special edition Mini came in two body colours, jet black and diamond white.
She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers
, and winner of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award.
In 2000, she resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd., her cosmetics company, after a Japan
ese buy-out. There are over 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan, where Quant fashions continue to enjoy more popularity.
In 1990 she won the Hall of Fame Award of the British Fashion Council.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
FCSD
Chartered Society of Designers
The Chartered Society of Designers , headquartered in London, England, is the professional body for designers. It is the world's only Royal chartered body of professional designers...
(born 11 February 1934) is a British
British
The word British is an adjective referring in various ways to the United Kingdom or the island of Great Britain and its people and language.People...
] fashion designer and British fashion icon, who was instrumental in the mod fashion movement. She was one of the designers who took credit for inventing the miniskirt
Miniskirt
A miniskirt, sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, is a skirt with a hemline well above the knees – generally no longer than below the buttocks; and a minidress is a dress with a similar meaning...
and hot pants. Born in Blackheath
Blackheath
Blackheath is the name of a number of places:*Blackheath, London, England**Blackheath, Kent *Blackheath, Surrey, England**Blackheath, Surrey *Blackheath, West Midlands, England*Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia...
, London, to Welsh parents, Quant brought fun and fantasy to fashion in the 1960s. As creator of the mini skirt and hot pants, she showed a generation how to dress to please themselves. Her instant success made traditionally cautious designers change their attitudes and make their designs appeal to the newly important youth market.
Ernestine Carter
Ernestine Carter
Ernestine Carter OBE was a museum curator, journalist, and writer on fashion.-Early history:Ernestine Marie Fantl was born on 10 October 1906 in Savannah, Georgia, where she was brought up. She studied modern and contemporary art and design at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, from which she...
, one of the most authoritative and influential fashion writers of the twentieth century, wrote: 'It is given to a fortunate few to be born at the right time, in the right place, with the right talents. In recent fashion there are three: Chanel, Dior and Mary Quant'. The 1960s were the right time for Quant. The decade was characterized by the rise of youth culture in Britain. Young people of all classes had independence, employment and disposable incomes. Style and image were everything, visible on television, purchasable in shops, available to all. Glamour was no longer an elusive quality epitomized by heroes and heroines on the cinema screen: 1960s' role models were pop singers, models, sporting figures, television stars. If the 1960s was the right time, 'Swinging London
Swinging London
Swinging London is a catch-all term applied to the fashion and cultural scene that flourished in London, in the 1960s.It was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasised the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution. One catalyst was the recovery of the...
' was the right place. Pop culture influenced what people wore as well as what they listened to.
Quant was not afraid of novelty and experimentation. Some of her most popular designs were sweater dresses with plastic collars, balloon-style dresses, and knickerbockers and stretch stockings in all colours and patterns. Other typical designs included knee-length white plastic lace-up boots, tight sweaters in bold striped or check patterns and plastic raincoats. These clothes became part of the 'London Look' and 'Mary Quant' became synonymous with trendiness: and famous for her work on pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
in fashion.
Early life
Quant was born in Blackheath, southeast London, on 11 February 1934, the daughter of Welsh teachers. Her parents, Jack and Mary Quant, were both from mining families. They had been awarded scholarships to grammar school and had both attained first-class degrees at Cardiff UniversityCardiff University
Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...
, before moving to London to work as schoolteachers. Quant went to Blackheath High School
Blackheath High School
Blackheath High School is situated near Blackheath Village in southeast London, England. It was founded in 1880 as part of the Girls' Day School Trust. The Senior Department is located in Vanbrugh Park after moving from Blackheath in 1993/4. The school in Blackheath village then became the Junior...
, then studied illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
at Goldsmiths College. After gaining a Diploma in Art Education from Goldsmiths, Quant began an apprenticeship as a couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
milliner.
She met her future husband and business partner, Alexander Plunkett-Green, at Goldsmiths. They were married from 1957 until his death in 1990 and had a son, Orlando.
In November 1955, she teamed up with Plunkett-Green and a former solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
, Archie McNair, to open a clothes shop on the King's Road
King's Road
King's Road is a street in Chelsea, London, England.King's Road or Kings Road may also refer to:* King's Road * King's Road * King's Road * King's Road...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
called Bazaar, where the best-sellers were small white plastic collars to brighten up a black dress or t-shirt and black stretch stockings. In 1957, they opened the second branch of Bazaar.
Following the positive reaction to a pair of "mad house pyjamas" designed for the opening and dissatisfied with the variety of clothes available to her, Quant decided to make her own range of clothing. Initially working solo, she was soon employing a handful of machinist
Machinist
A machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may...
s, and by 1966 she was working with eighteen manufacturers concurrently.
Miniskirt
Skirts had been getting shorter since about 1958 – a development Mary Quant considered to be practical and liberating, allowing women the ability to run for a bus. The miniskirtMiniskirt
A miniskirt, sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, is a skirt with a hemline well above the knees – generally no longer than below the buttocks; and a minidress is a dress with a similar meaning...
, which she is arguably most famous for, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s. The miniskirt was developed separately by André Courrèges
André Courrèges
André Courrèges is a French fashion designer, known for his ultra-modern designs. At the age of 25, after studying to be a civil engineer, he went to Paris to work at Geanne Lafaurie fashion design house...
and John Bates
John Bates (designer)
John Bates was a fashion designer who was part of the boutique scene that blossomed in London in the 1960s.-Life:Bates apprenticed under Gerard Pipart at Herbert Sidon. From 1959 he began designing under the name Jean Varon....
, and there is disagreement as to who came up with the idea first. Like most fashion, the short- and ever-shorter skirt was evolving already among individual fashion-minded young women: The designers who adapted it just helped spread the style and, in Quant's case, gave it a name. Quant said: "It was the girls on the King's Road who invented the mini. I was making easy, youthful, simple clothes, in which you could move, in which you could run and jump and we would make them the length the customer wanted. I wore them very short and the customers would say, 'Shorter, shorter.'" Quant named the miniskirt after her favorite make of car, the Mini
Mini
The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...
. She loved the car so much, she had one designed especially for her.
Of all Mary's designs, the mini skirt is by far the most widely recognized and the one for which she is still famed. Although André Courrèges had modelled above-the-knee couture designs in the early 1960s, Mary's designs were revolutionary: it was suddenly acceptable and even mandatory to show a lot of leg - such was the power of affordable fashion.
In addition to the miniskirt, Mary Quant is often credited with inventing the coloured and patterned tights
Tights
Tights are a kind of cloth leg garment, most often sheathing the body from about the waist to the feet with a more or less tight fit, hence the name....
that tended to accompany the garment, although these are also attributed to Cristobal Balenciaga
Cristóbal Balenciaga
Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre was a Spanish Basque fashion designer and the founder of the Balenciaga fashion house....
or John Bates.
Later career
In the late 1960s, Quant popularised hot pants, becoming a British fashion icon. Through the 1970s and 1980s she concentrated on household goods and make-up, rather than just her clothing lines. At a talk at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2007 she claimed to have invented duvetDuvet
A duvet from the French duvet "down"), is a type of bedding — a soft flat bag filled with down, feathers, or a synthetic alternative, and protected with a removable cover, analogous to a pillow and pillow case...
covers.
In 1988, Mary Quant designed the interior of the Mini
Mini
The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...
(1000) Designer (Originally dubbed the Mini Quant, this name was switched when popularity charts were set against having Quant's name on the car). It featured black and white striped seats with red trimming. The seatbelts were red, and the driving and passenger seats had Quant's signature on the upper left quadrant. The steering wheel had Quant's signature daisy and the bonnet badge had "Mary Quant" written over the signature name. The headlight housings, wheel arches, door handles and bumpers were all nimbus grey, rather than the more common chrome or black finishes. Two thousand were released in the U.K. on 15 June 1988, and a number were also released on to foreign markets; however, the numbers for these are hard to come by. The special edition Mini came in two body colours, jet black and diamond white.
She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers
Chartered Society of Designers
The Chartered Society of Designers , headquartered in London, England, is the professional body for designers. It is the world's only Royal chartered body of professional designers...
, and winner of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award.
In 2000, she resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd., her cosmetics company, after a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese buy-out. There are over 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan, where Quant fashions continue to enjoy more popularity.
Awards
In 1966 Mary was appointed OBE for her outstanding contribution to the fashion industry. She accepted the award in her inimitable style, arriving at Buckingham Palace in a micro-mini skirt and black cut-out gloves.In 1990 she won the Hall of Fame Award of the British Fashion Council.
Books by Quant
- 1966: Quant by Quant. Her autobiography.
- 1984: Colour by Quant.
- 1986: Quant on Make-up.
- 1999 Classic Make-up and Beauty Book.