Reprinted from: WWD International Fashion News
Original title: WWD World | What does Mary Quant bring? What's left?
From the 19th century to the 20th century, countless individual creativity has presented the fashion industry with shining classic styles or challenging aesthetics, and the cultural and commercial influence condensed on the brand has made them continuously influence future generations.
Mary Quant, known as the "mother of mini skirts", is a fashion pioneer who has attracted much attention.
Famous model Twiggy On social media, Mary Quant had a great influence on young girls in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She completely changed the fashion industry and was also an outstanding female entrepreneur. Without her, the 1960s would not be what it is today.
Valerie Steele, the curator of FIT Museum, called Quant "a well deserved landmark in the history of fashion". She said, "The fact that miniskirts become a fashion trend again every few years proves the influence of this image."
Paul Smith said: "She is a brave innovator, always keeping fashionable and bringing shock."
The aesthetic revolution brought by Mary Quant impacted the 1960s, and the free and wanton vanguard attitude affected the women at that time.
Mary Quant was born in Blackheath, southeast London in 1930. When she expressed to her parents that she wanted to learn fashion design, she was strongly discouraged by her parents and hoped that she would choose a more "stable" career path. "My parents have given me everything, but they always think that my choice to be a designer is a dangerous move", Mary Quant once said in an interview.
Mary Quant studied art education at a university in London and opened an independent clothing store in King's Road, Chelsea in the 1950s. This was once a gathering place for young artists, cutting-edge filmmakers and sociologists. Their common ground was that they sniffed at the restoration of traditional values, longed for and explored new ways of life and dress. These people were also called "Chelsea Set" by the media at that time.
Although Mary Quant's design in the 1950s is not mature, she has abandoned her superstition of traditional elegance, and is interesting, flexible and young. These characteristics have become her unique design logo.
For a long time, "Paris is equal to fashion" -- and people also default that fashion should be top-down. Mary Quant is, to some extent, the first "provincial" designer to make Paris fashion feel threatened. She has completely broken the original territory and rules, and is attacking the traditional fashion system with a bottom-up force.
Since the mid and late 1950s, women's skirts have gradually become shorter. After crossing the red line of the knee, the appearance of mini skirts is doomed.
Mary Quant once said, "The girls at King's Road are the ones who really invented the miniskirt. I wanted to design simple and young clothes so that the wearer could move freely and jump in it. We just provided the length of the skirt that the customer wanted. Although I have made the skirt very short, my customers shouted," Make it shorter. "
For British young people at that time, Mary Quant was the first designer who sympathized with them, which was not only reflected in the "explicit" design, but also reflected in the price tag of products.
At that time, we often saw such scenes. After buying mini skirts in Mary Quant's fashion shop, girls went straight to the Espresso Bar to celebrate. Mary Quant once recalled: "Gentlemen in hats knocked on our shop windows with umbrella handles and shouted 'immoral' and 'disgusting' at our miniskirts and pantyhose, but the customers were endless."
The success of the miniskirt has brought Mary Quant great influence in the industry, but in addition to the miniskirt, many forward-looking designs brought by her also had a profound impact on the fashion, women, society and many "rules" at that time. In the 1960s, when mini skirts had already caused a great stir, the emergence of hot pants was even more shocking. The designer herself had predicted that, she said, "I just like to break the rules, because it's so funny. Soon this series will be promoted as' underwear for wear '."
Mary Quant tried on an 8-year-old boy's sweater with a playful attitude. After some improvement, this kind of tight knit sweater that can match almost everything was born.
At the same time, Mary Quant occasionally conducts fashion experiments with special materials, including colorful tights and PVC raincoats. Mary Quant teamed up with Nylon Hosiery to make silver, gold, green, blue, red and other colors used in the pantyhose category for the first time.
Although the invention of PVC raincoat was novel, it was still from a practical point of view. Although it was extremely rare to use this material in fashion design at that time, it could actually withstand the uncertain weather in Britain.
Mary Quant's free and wanton experiment is also carried out in the field of beauty She worked closely with Stanley Picker, a cosmetics giant, and founded Mary Quant's cosmetics series of the same name. The cosmetics continued Mary Quant's casual and bold style. At the turn of the millennium, Mary Quant resigned as the director of her beauty brand, granted Japanese partners to operate, and turned to the Japanese market for production and development.
The 'Fashion Culture Museum' previously quoted the comment of fashion writer Ernestine Carter in the article "Legend 100: Mary Quant: The Queen of Miniskirts": "Only a few people are lucky enough to be born at the right time, in the right place and with the right talent. There are three lucky people in the history of fashion: Chanel, Dior and Mary Quant." Although everything about Mary Quant seems to be fixed on April 13, 2023, the mini skirt, PVC raincoat, and many creative design improvements she has brought are shining in the long cultural river. WWD
By Dadax
Edit Sasha
Picture editor Greg Bike
Original text is from Legend 100 classic legend of 'Fashion Culture Museum'
Click the picture below to read the original text
