The death was announced last week of fashion designer Mary Quant. She was 93. But in my head, Mary Quant will always be about 35. As I entered my teens, her styles were the thing to wear. My family didn't have a lot of spare money for clothes, and I remember that I was frequently given clothes from another girl at church, who was very stylish. She passed on a dress just like this**. I had that haircut too. I was short and slim, and miniskirts made me feel much taller!
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**My parents were incredibly tolerant, and even when my minis were only 12" long, they were OK with them, as long as my briefs were not on show. And Mum preferred skirts to trousers But Mum didn't really like that black dress - it reminded her of the poor girls at her school from the Orphanage, who only wore black clothes. This is probably why I had lots of navy stuff instead.
Looking at my wardrobe today, I can see I still love the simple shapes and shorter skirts - and my hair is still cut in a bob. I owe all that to Mary, with her iconic daisy logo. Thank you Mary!
Did you have a Mary Quant style miniskirt in your youth?
Would you wear one now?
My biggest memory of clothes influnced by Mary Quant was colour blocked things. Her styles were so exciting. And they were fairly easy to make - as you say, that was a great advantage!
ReplyDeleteI loved the Mondrian-inspired colour block shifts
DeleteI wore my school uniform when I started work, fortunately I wore an overall so it was covered most of the time. I was very envious of the girl who stated work with me as her parents had kitted her out with a Starting Work wardrobe. All the latest fashion, all in pink and orange.
ReplyDeleteWe had one tiny "boutique" in our town. A number of my friends were given money by their parents to buy clothes there. I just browsed, then bought fabric on the market and copied styles. Not always successfully though...
DeleteI've always been aware of her even though I was a child of the 80's and found her style really Cute! I definitely had mini skirts as a teen!xx
ReplyDeleteKezzie, I'm sure your mum was influenced by MQ and it rubbed off on you...
DeleteMary Quant style clothes were so easy to sew. I used to buy a half yard of fabric with my Saturday job wages and make a skirt ready to go out that night! Catriona
ReplyDeleteYou and me both!
DeleteI never had any say in what was bought or made for me until I left school!
ReplyDeleteHaving a Saturday job meant I could buy fabric. But "big things" like winter coats involved careful negotiations
DeleteI was always tall, and in my young days, skinny with it, but I had great legs, and knew it!
ReplyDeleteI wore mini skirts and dresses that made my parents despair!
Dad often used to ask me whether I'd forgotten to put my skirt on as I appeared to be wearing a blouse and a belt!
My absolute favourite outfit was a black and red colour block skirt, worn with a black jumper, red PVC boots (do you remember when they were elasticated at the tops?) and a black, grey and white 'snakeskin' patterned PVC mac'!
Would I wear any of them now? With my still long, but fat, varicose veiny legs? Not a chance! X
That sounds like a really cool outfit! I had a pair of red PVC boots I got for £2 in a sale when my beige ones split.
DeleteOh yes I had mini skirts, a couple of them when I was in my early teens, we didn't seem to have many clothes back in the day. My favourite was a hand-me-down from one of my Mum's friends daughters and it was two tone, if you looked one way it seemed blue and the other it seemed green, I wore it with a blue satin shirt with penny round collars.
ReplyDeleteOh I'd forgotten the "penny round" collars!
DeleteMy grandmother made many of my clothes and I loved this style! It was difficult to get her to make them as short as I wanted them, though!
ReplyDeleteMy gran lived too far away to make comments about my skirts!
DeleteIn the USA, I was a aware of Mary Quant and her wonderful styles. My mother made me dresses that mimiced her style. Yes, mini skirts, too!
ReplyDeleteHugs!
👍🙂
DeleteMiniskirts and minidresses, but especially skirts...a must have for every girl of my youth. And later on I also really liked wearing them... nice photos you show, I think I'm going to sew a dress :-))) a little longer now, of course.
ReplyDeleteMany greetings to you. Have a happy evening.
Yes, with age, we wear our skirts a little longer 😉
DeleteMy memories of that time were of a directive at work concerning wearing short skirts when going up stairs! I do still have some nail polisher and the buffing pad that MQ sold!
ReplyDeleteI can understand you keeping the nail buffer - but is the polish still usable?
DeleteIt's just a little pot of pink creamy stuff that I forget to use! I just fetched it out and it still smells lovely and I tried it on my thumbnail and buffed it and it still works. I will start to use it again, thanks to you reminding me about Mary Quant!
DeleteOh that's lovely
DeleteI cried the day my mother sewed me a mini skirt! I hated it! I liked long skirts and I still do. :)
ReplyDeleteI imagine you always look very graceful Bless!
DeleteThank you, Angela. I was (still am) short and plump; longer skirts hid a multitude of flaws! :D
Delete😊👍
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