Mary Quant

Mary Quant

Mary Quant was most influential in the fashion industry throughout the 1960s. She was responsible for creating the mini skirt, the maxi skirt, hot pants and the mini dress. She also popularised the short hairstyle and bobs as this liberated women and fought for their equality. Quant was against the Dior ‘New Look’ which featured a very feminine frame as she wanted to allow movement into her designs. Her garments were aimed at the younger generation (18-25) because of their fun and sexy appearance and due to the shapes and fabrics used. Quant would use Op Art and black and white, much like Bridget Riley. Her looks were often inspired by child-like looks which she modified to the older generation, making them more playful and simplistic.

Influences

         - Music

         - Politics (Women’s Rights, Vietnam War Protests)

         - Past Cultures (Egyptian)

         - Changing Context

         - Street wear

         - Younger Generation

         - Economics

At this time, Paris was the centre of fashion which focused of the fashion of the youth. There was also an economic boom, which resulted in more disposable income and therefore more money to spend on clothes. For this reason, Mary Quant began creating new collections every 6 weeks, rather than most fashion houses which created 2-3 collections per year.

Twiggy became famous for modelling Mary Quant’s clothing which started a culture where people are famous for being famous. She began using celebrities to model her clothes as this made them more noticeable and impactful.

Mary Quant had no formal training in fashion. She was an art student used to using different media and was not aware of traditional methods for creating clothes. She also began generating ‘Paper Dresses’ where you could buy the pattern for her design. This enabled and encouraged women to change what they wore and alter it to how they wanted it which made clothing more individual and personalised. This also helped boost sales of sewing machines in the 60’s as Mary Quant had made it okay to make things unique.