Mary Quant: How She Fought for Women’s Rights With Colourful Tights
collage: @laurenelburns
From white collared dresses to her very own makeup line, Mary Quant revolutionised youth fashion forever by raising hemlines and sporting unconventional colours. Largely contributing to ‘mod’ fashion and creating the 1960s’ famous ‘London look’, Quant is seen as defining one of the most important decades in British fashion. Most known as the creator of the famous mini-skirt, Quant’s designs changed the name of youth fashion forever with affordable and easy-to-wear clothing that played into the feminist movements of the era. Quant noticed that youth fashion wasn’t representative of those wearing it and used this as a chance to design and manufacture her own items. Her clothes changed fashion forever, with many of her designs now outfit staples in modern wardrobes.
Graduating from Goldsmiths University in 1953, Quant began experimenting with making her own clothing in tweed and gingham fabrics that were largely practical and androgynous. This stemmed from her beliefs that fashion needed to change from post-war style to clothes that celebrated youth. She felt that, in order to do this, fashion had to be accessible and affordable, which led to her opening her own boutique, Bazaar, in 1955. There she stocked her own original items in an array of colours and patterns, making the shop immediately popular. Her use of trendy and colourful window displays with models in quirky poses brought a lot of attention to her shop, where people would often stop to stare at the eccentric displays. “Within 10 days, we hardly had a piece of the original merchandise left,” Quant said in relation to Bazaar.
Quant’s designs largely experimented with hemlines and bold colours which allowed her to shock shoppers and connect with what young people wanted to see. Her white plastic collars brought a new life to simple black dresses and by pairing them with tights and white patent boots, she quickly established a specific brand style that’s now heavily associated with the 60s. Her jersey dress in particular, is known for defining the swinging sixties in London following a trend in knitted jersey. With its variety of designs and colours alongside its modernist silhouette, the dress embodied Quant’s famous style.
However, it’s the mini-skirt that really helped her career take off. An item that had never been seen before in fashion, the design shocked many and was considered vulgar initially. Despite being named the inventor of the mini-skirt, Quant claims it was actually created by the girls who visited her stores as they always asked for their skirts to be shorter and shorter. Because of this demand, she began experimenting with hemlines and rolling skirts up at the waist, which lead to the thigh-grazing mini-skirt hitting stores in 1964. Soon the skirt became incredibly popular, with a simplicity and playfulness that hadn’t yet been seen in fashion making it famous. Her styling of the skirt with colourful tights and patterned ribbed shirts signified an energetic innocence that reflected youth culture at the time and formed the famous London look.
Following the fame of the mini-skirt, Quant continued to empower women, bringing non-traditional items and designs into wardrobes. She had a huge role in popularising hot pants in the late 60s, which was a big deal for many as before then, trousers were typically a very masculine item. With her designs coinciding with the feminist movements of the era and the pill becoming commercially available in the UK in 1961, her designs brought a sexiness that hadn’t been seen in fashion before. Her designs encouraged sexual liberation, with the mini-skirt in particular becoming a symbol of the movement. Feminists such as Gloria Steinem wore her pieces, with the freshness and sexiness of her designs symbolising that times were changing not only for fashion but for women everywhere.
From this, her fame continued on and by 1963 she was exporting designs to America and moved into mass-production to keep up with the demand. She then expanded her brand to original patterned tights, cosmetics and accessories and continued redefining outfits. Now in 2021 her designs continue to take over exhibitions and inspire wardrobes, only further highlighting Quant’s influence on fashion. Mini-skirts and trousers are now a wardrobe staple for many, partly because Quant used fashion to express personality and offered an alternative to just dressing in whatever was available.
by Tia Janowski (Staff Fashion & Beauty Writer)
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