Mary Quant is one of those names that sum up an entire era – in her case the Swinging Sixties.
If you were around – and many of the audience for a documentary called Quant clearly were – just the word conjured up a look – short, straight hair cut in a bob, bright, vibrant colours, ultra-short mini-skirts and gallons of mascara.
Even fashion ignoramuses like your humble servant knew who Mary Quant was, but I didn’t know much else about her.
Photo: Screenshot
She seemed to represent Britain at its most fun - from around the time of A Hard Day’s Night- era Beatles to the 1967 Summer of Love when hippie kaftans replaced the mini-skirt.
But of course, that’s nowhere near the whole story.
She certainly led the reaction against the conservative ‘50s - post war Britain crippled by rationing – and also against the power of French haute couture.
Back then, fashion meant wildly expensive gowns for duchesses and millionaires’ wives.
Quant changed all that. She made clothes for the young - the famous Chelsea girls, who in turn inspired her with what they wanted.
Did she invent the mini-skirt? No more than the Beatles, with whom she’d be indelibly linked, invented rock and roll. But she certainly pushed that look, and her fans pushed back, driving the hem higher and higher.
Quant tells you all you didn’t know about the woman behind the famous daisy logo – which in my case was pretty much everything.
I had no idea she started her first shop on the Kings Road as early as the mid-50s – or that her career went on so long, and so successfully, after her ‘60s heyday.
The Beatles broke up in 1970. Mary Quant continued at the top of her game for another 30 years.
I also had no idea about the triumvirate that ran the business. There was Quant herself, who was the creative third. There was her husband, Alexander Plunkett Greene, the confident front man, and the well-connected business manager Archie McNair.
The director of Quant is the equally well-connected Sadie Frost. Better known as an actor, she’s also, usefully, a fashion designer herself.
She clearly knows everyone, and has roped in fashionistas old and young to sing Mary’s praises.
Many prefer to appear as voice only – which allowed me to think of Pattie Boyd as I remember her in A Hard Day’s Night!
But there is a welcome appearance by the Kinks’ resident “dedicated follower of fashion” Dave Davies.
As I say, it was mostly new material to me, apart from the look and the attitudes. I remember those.
But one thing I loved about Quant herself was that, like so many of the artists and entertainers of the era, she made it up as she went along. They all just went to art school, rather than fashion school, film school, or a school of rock.
It was fun, it was frivolous, it wasn’t remotely serious about anything – apart from clothes. And Mary Quant provided those.
Actually, the most shocking part of the whole film was Quant’s age, she’s now 92, and her full title,, Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene. But, of course, she wears it well.
