Mary Quant: fashion icon

British fashionista Mary Quant was hailed as a visionary and as the artist who popularised the mini skirt. To mark her passing in April, aged 93, an exhibition of her designs is now underway in the Scottish city of Glasgow, which Heather Tilbury Phillips, erstwhile co-director of Mary Quant Ltd, heartily recommends.

Heather Tilbury Phillips: "I think this exhibition is the most wonderful tribute to Mary's farsightedness, her enthusiasm, her creativity and her wish that people achieve their their essence in life."

Quant's vibrant fashion was synonymous with the sixties – frequently labelled the 'Swinging 60s'; a decade of hope, characterised by its emergence from the gloom of the second world war and the post-war austerity years. The notion of 'teenager' took shape as the younger generation, in particular women, reacted to the limitations of the status quo. This consciousness was something which Quant's designs tapped into, according to Tilbury Phillips.

Heather Tilbury Phillips: "I think she introduced such a revolutionary attitude to clothes, that garments that the young could run, jump, leap onto a bus, go dancing."

Her womenswear was ground-breaking not only for its daring skirt length and its impactful design and colour, but also for the fabric used. Quant experimented with state-of-the-art materials like nylon and PVC, as the curator at Glasgow Museums, Rebecca Quinton, highlights.

Rebecca Quinton: But there's also modern materials. We're used to them now. But this is at the beginning of nylon, lycra, PVC coming in, and she made use of all these new technologies and materials to do new things – stretch fabrics, waterproof fabrics."

Glasgow will see Quant's trailblazing designs on show to the public until 22nd October 2023, in the concluding stage of this retrospective's world tour.

For Quinton, the event's likely to ignite the passion of young designers seeking to follow in the innovator's footsteps.

Rebecca Quinton: "So it's a wonderful opportunity for everybody to either come and reminisce or be inspired to be the next generation of designers, whether they're interested in fashion or product design, to come and see one of the most revolutionary fashion designers of the 20th century." View Less