{"id":6546,"date":"2019-05-13T15:13:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T15:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=6546"},"modified":"2019-05-13T15:13:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T15:13:23","slug":"mary-quant-va-until-16-february-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=6546","title":{"rendered":"Mary Quant, V&A, until 16 February 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mary Quant Ginger Group dress\/damesnet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Where would we be without coloured tights, skinny rib\njumpers and comfy loungewear? Can you imagine life before the miniskirt? And\njust what were \u2018hot pants\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these questions and more are answered at the Mary Quant<\/em> exhibition at the V&A, which is a complete inspiration to visit. It tells the story of how Dame Mary Quant, who was born in 1930 in south-east London to Welsh parents, grew up with austerity and clothes rationing, and went on to become Britain\u2019s best-known fashion designer and define the look that characterised \u2018the Swinging Sixties\u2019,  helping to create a forward-looking, innovative identity for post-war Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mary Quant rainwear\/damesnet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As a child Quant longed to train in fashion design, but to please her teacher parents, she did a Diploma in Art Education at Goldsmiths College. There her horizons were expanded as she started to meet free-thinking people from different walks of life. Her first job was trimming hats at a couture milliner in Mayfair, but the lure of the King\u2019s Road and the people she met in London\u2019s jazz clubs, not to mention the man who was to become her husband, set her off in the direction she had always wanted. In 1955 she opened her first shop on the King\u2019s Road, Bazaar. By the 1960s she had expanded into an international fashion brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mary Quant jersey dress\/damesnet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition shows how, through Quant\u2019s designs, London became a challenge to Paris as a fashion centre. There are miniskirts of all fabrics and designs (named after the Mini, Quant\u2019s favourite car, and a symbol of Swinging London in its own right). Despite causing outrage in the older generation, by 1966 the miniskirt had become an accepted part of fashion as well as a symbol of London\u2019s look and of women\u2019s liberation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are coloured jersey dresses with matching tights, office\nwear, party wear, loungewear, underwear and rainwear. Quant collaborated with\nAlligator Rainwear, based in Stockport, to develop ranges of PVC rainwear in\nprimary colours, which completely upended the notion of the English mackintosh,\nhitherto only seen in navy and shades of beige. The partnership extended to\ndeveloping new synthetic fabrics for her rainwear collections, which allowed\nQuant more freedom in her designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mary Quant PVC shoes\/damesnet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The exploration with new materials extended to footwear: there is a range of PVC ankle boots in a variety of primary colours that wouldn\u2019t go amiss in an episode of Star Trek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mary Quant daisy\/damesnet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Quant\u2019s designs were branded with the daisy emblem, which she trademarked in 1966. Her style was both androgynous and childlike. It celebrated the rise of youth culture and reflected a more relaxed attitude to sexuality in general. This was another feature of the 1960s, together with the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quant created a total look that extended to accessories and makeup, even sewing patterns, unheard of at the time. She credits her King\u2019s Road customers as her inspiration and the leaders of the feminist rebellion, describing the young as \u2018prototypes of a whole new race of women. It\u2019s their questioning attitude that makes them important and different.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will leave you with two more of her quotes I\nfound at the exhibition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Fashion is not frivolous; it is a part of\nbeing alive today.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The whole point of fashion is to make\nfashionable clothes available to everyone.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

completely upended the notion of the English mackintosh..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,2,63,69,70,205,59],"tags":[76,94,78,206,82],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6546"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6580,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546\/revisions\/6580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}