The Swinging Sixties have returned to London with two shows devoted to Mary Quant and the Chelsea set of designers. Philippa Stockley looks back
In its bright exhibition of 200 items, including 120 outfits, make-up, tights, bags and underwear, the V&A shows how the prolific, inventive designer revolutionised fashion. It all began with Bazaar, a small shop on the King’s Road opened with her boyfriend—soon to be husband —Alexander Plunket Greene and their friend Archie McNair, owner of Fantasie, the nearby coffee shop and mecca for the ‘Chelsea set’. At Bazaar, dresses were sold in umpteen variations to delighted young buyers.
Mary would go on to popularise tailored trousers for women, short hair, hotpants and smooth, light underwear that banished corsets, but the fledgling designer changed more than clothing. Her fastidiously cut dresses— trapezoid, dropped-waist, belted shift, box-pleated or pinafore— drastically improved women’s freedom to move.
Esta historia es de la edición April 24, 2019 de Country Life UK.
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