AS ONE of the world’s most famous fashion designers, Mary Quant found inspiration everywhere – including in Glasgow’s most glamorous department stores.
“We travelled to Scotland several times, and Mary loved shops like Copland & Lye in Glasgow and Jenners in Edinburgh,” explains Mary’s long-time colleague and friend Heather Tilbury Phillips.
“Lewis’s on Argyle Street was another fabulous store, and Pettigrew and Stephen – we’d put on fashion shows there, which were always very well received. And of course, Mary was also inspired by the textiles in the Borders, Paisley patterns, Harris Tweed, which she used in her designs. She loved Glasgow and would be thrilled this exhibition is coming to the city.”
Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary is a major retrospective on the work of Dame Mary Quant, who died last month aged 93. It opens at Kelvingrove on Saturday, May 20.
Following its launch at the Dundee V&A and an international tour, this is the final chance to see a spectacular display of more than 100 garments, accessories, cosmetics and photographs drawn from the V&A’s extensive collections, Dame Mary’s archive and many private collections.
Focusing on the years from 1955, when Mary opened her experimental boutique Bazaar on the King’s Road, Chelsea, to 1975, it reveals how the trailblazing designer revolutionised the high street with subversive and playful designs for a younger generation.
Heather, who was a director of Mary Quant Limited and advisor to the V&A on the exhibition, met Mary in 1967.
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“I was working at a company called Kangol, who had the licensing for Mary Quant berets,” she explains. “I got to know Mary and the team quite well and when I was preparing to leave, she offered me a job handling her marketing and PR.”
Heather adds, smiling: “I told her, would you believe, that I was actually thinking of going travelling. She said, 'well, why don’t you travel all the way down to Chelsea and work for me?' It felt like an offer I could not refuse. And I’m glad I said yes, because it was amazing to be part of her world.”
Working with Mary was “unpredictable, exciting, challenging,” says Heather.
“Every day was different,” she explains. “We were quite a small team, almost like a family. You were always invited to contribute, if you felt strongly about something you were encouraged to speak out, and she would try to find a way of making it happen.
“That was incredibly empowering.”
One of the most unusual items in the exhibition is the Daisy Doll, which was manufactured in Hong Kong by Model Toys Ltd who were based in Shotts, Lanarkshire (later, Timpo Toys).
“Mary loved dressing up and she came up with the idea of launching a strong, fashion-based doll,” says Heather. “Daisy was her favourite flower, and the logo of the company, so the Daisy Doll was born.”
A rival to the likes of Barbie and Sindy, Daisy had the edge, because she came with a range of fabulous outfits all mirroring the Mary Quant collections of the time.
With her own exciting back story which chimed with Mary’s ethos of empowerment for girls and women (Daisy was a travel journalist, a skateboarder, a ballerina, whatever she turned her hand to) and aimed at the pocket-money market, it was a masterstroke in marketing, says Jenny Lister, co-curator of Mary Quant at the V&A.
“I had a Daisy Doll and it was a complete revelation to me, aged four,” she says, smiling. “I’m sure she’s part of the reason I’m doing this job now. She was so stylish, with all these fantastic outfits and shoes. And with accessories costing 15p, it was brilliant marketing. I was obsessed.”
Heather agrees. “She was introduced at the Harrogate Toy Fair in 1973, and I don’t think the buyers, who were a fairly sedate, serious bunch of businessmen in grey suits, quite knew what to make of her,” she says, smiling.
“The idea was to stimulate the imagination and spark an interest in fashion, in mixing and matching clothes, in young people. She was a huge success.”
Sections of the exhibition look at the shift from couture to mass market designer fashion with the launch of the Ginger Group; how Mary moved fashion forward by going back and embracing the textile industry at the very heart of British manufacturing; and the way she ‘borrowed from the boys’ and manipulated menswear to challenge the conventional gender stereotypes of the day.
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Famous for popularising super-high hem lines, the exhibition goes on to explore the story of the miniskirt, dressmaking patterns, make-up and accessories that all showcased the iconic daisy logo.
The themes of dressmaking, marketing and fashion across the decades are explored in detail and provide the focus for an innovative public programme of demonstrations, workshops and talks that will complement the exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Rebecca Quinton, curator of dress at Glasgow Life Museums, said: “Dame Mary Quant’s contribution to British fashion was truly trailblazing and marked a radical change in the way clothing was designed and marketed both in the United Kingdom and internationally. It’s fantastic to be the culminating host of the exhibition tour and to share Quant’s amazing vision with our visitors.”
Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary runs until October 22.
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