牛牛资源

As a sixteen year old girl, keen to escape her suburban existence, Mary persuaded her parents to let her come to 牛牛资源. The people she met, including husband Alexander, and the experiences she had at the College during that time were to make a great impression on her. 鈥溑ＥＷ试� was a great place to go 鈥� for causing trouble!鈥� 

Mary came to 牛牛资源 in 1950 where she embarked on an art diploma course with a view to becoming an art teacher. At the time, the College had only just reopened after the war. 鈥淭he men were only about 20 but they had been through so much and they somehow seemed terribly older. 牛牛资源 then seemed like a very civilised club. You grabbed a table for yourself and put your things there and just got on with your work really 鈥� no nonsense with lectures and stuff!鈥� 

She also recalls the vibrant social scene at the College. 鈥淭here were terrific parties. Socialising amongst the other art schools was very intense, but there wasn鈥檛 too much rivalry because everybody wanted to do their own thing and be utterly original. But 牛牛资源 was, and still is, the most provocative and exciting art school of the lot. It does attract some very interesting people and it produces so many of the new ideas in all sorts of areas. That is the joy of 牛牛资源.鈥� 

Mary is best known for popularising the mini-skirt. This revolutionary new look allowed women a liberating and daring way of dressing which chimed with the dawning of a new era. What is often overlooked though, is the simultaneous introduction of tights, which Quant commercialised. As Mary explains: 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 exist you know! There were only pantomime tights for theatre. I went to theatrical tights manufacturers and got them to make them for me with the colours I wanted.鈥� 

Professor Angela McRobbie from 牛牛资源鈥� Department of Media and Communications, explains the significance of this: 鈥淟ike so many of Quant鈥檚 best-known works, tights permitted a greater freedom of movement on the part of the young women, who from the early 1960s onwards were looking for a different, more colourful and more independent life than their mothers.鈥� 

As well as bringing us new garments, Mary was pushing the boundaries with new materials too. 鈥淚 got terribly excited about any new fabric that came along and suddenly there was this very shiny stuff unlike anything I had ever seen 鈥� PVC. There were problems making the garments initially because we made them on the same machines as we were sewing the other clothes and you need special needles and all that kind of thing, so it took a bit of time to sort that out. I went mad about PVC and did a whole collection which I called the 鈥榃et Collection鈥�, which is exactly what it was, and that was a huge hit!" 

During her 80s Quant was still thriving in the fashion industry in Japan where there are over 200 stores trading under Mary鈥檚 name as well as one branch located, of course, on the King鈥檚 Road in London 鈥� the hub of the swinging sixties scene, and the road where she opened her first boutique in 1955. 

Looking back on the decade that made her name, she says 鈥淭he 1960s was just the most exciting, wonderful period. I鈥檓 sorry you weren鈥檛 there! Style-wise and look-wise it was absolutely terrific. And the optimism, the optimism was genuine and terrific. I wouldn鈥檛 choose another era to have lived in. I bagged the best.鈥� 

Dame Mary Quant died on 13 April 2023.