Mary Quant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Quant OBE FCSD is an English fashion designer, one of the many designers who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants. Born February 11, 1934 in Kent, England to Welsh parents, Quant studied illustration at Goldsmith's College before taking a job with a couture milliner.
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[edit] Early career
In October 1955, she teamed up with her husband Alexander Plunkett-Greene, and an accountant Archie McNair, to open a clothes shop on the Kings Road in London called 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 machinists, and by 1966 she was working with 18 different manufacturers concurrently.
[edit] The miniskirt
The skirts had been getting shorter since about 1958 — a development she considered to be practical and liberating, allowing women the ability to run for a bus. The miniskirt, for which she is arguably most famous, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s. The miniskirt was developed separately by Andre Courrèges, and there is disagreement as to who came up with the idea first. Quant named the miniskirt after her favourite make of car, the Mini.
In addition to the miniskirt, 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.
[edit] The Swinging Sixties
Regardless of whether she invented these items, Quant was one of their major popularisers, largely thanks to the fact that Bazaar was a popular haunt for the fashionable "Chelsea Set" of "Swinging London". By 1961, Quant had opened a second Bazaar in Knightsbridge and by 1965 she was exporting to the USA. To keep up with demand, Quant went into mass-production, setting up the Ginger Group.
Quant's popularity was at its peak in the mid 1960s, during which time she produced the dangerously short micro-mini skirt, "paint-box" [make-up], and plastic raincoats. She was described as being the leading fashion force outside Paris. In 1970 Bernard Levin called her the "High Priestess of Sixties fashion" [1]. At the height of her fame in the 60s, she anticipated that pubic hair would be a "fashion emphasis" in the coming decade, a suggestion that was scorned by many, though, as Levin observed, "none was so sure of the basis of his ridicule as to deny the possibility" [2].
In 1966, Quant was appointed an OBE for services to the fashion industry.
[edit] Later career
In the late 1960s, Quant launched hot pants, which was her last big fashion development. Through the 1970s and 1980s she concentrated on household goods and make-up.
In 1988, 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. 2000 were released in the UK on 15th June of 1988, a number were also released onto 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 Japanese buy-out. There are over 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan, where Quant fashions continue to enjoy some popularity.
Mary Quant has a son, named Orlando.
