The Delightful Birth of Hot Pants: Dame Quant

Her impact on the Swinging Sixties altered the course of fashion forever. Her inventiveness also made a distinct contribution to the lives of young women. Dame Mary Quant was at the vanguard of design, pioneering unique fashion trends. But as one of fashion’s most influential figures, she knew the controversy she had to create to get anywhere. She was the designer who wanted to represent the freedom and spirit of a new era.

1960s London was a city where young women looked to escape post-war austerity and distance themselves from their parents. They were a generation who wanted art, design, fashion, film, food, sex and, most of all, dance and music. Mary recognised the importance of this ‘youthquake’ and she wanted to capitalise on it.

Mary Quant was born on February 11^th, 1930, in Blackheath, London. Her parents refused to let her take a fashion course, so she studied illustration at Goldsmiths. In 1953, she began working as an apprentice for Erik of Brook Street, a high-end milliner.

But everything changed in 1955. She founded the fashion retailer Bazaar with her husband Alexander Plunket Greene and entrepreneur Archie McNair. Mary’s garments were exciting and vibrant. As well as affordable and accessible to the emerging ‘youthquake’ movement.

“The whole point of fashion is to make fashionable clothes available to everyone.”
– Mary.

Bazaar’s opening coincided with the emergence of a Mod subculture in London. Mods were clever, cool and crisp – they congregated in all-night cafés and jazz clubs. Mary’s creations would have a tremendous impact on them and fashion, changing the world forever…

The Bazaar Youthquake of Swinging London

Mary stocked her shop with clothing she could find on the wholesale market, seizing the chance to offer a fresh perspective on women’s fashion. But she felt dissatisfied with the outfits provided.

And so Mary decided to sell her own creations.

She was a self-taught designer. She took classes on cutting and modifying mass-market printed patterns to obtain the style she desired. In her autobiography, she said that she started her career at the same time ‘that something was in the air’.

Her concept was for joyful clothes that provided freedom and the opportunity to run, leap, and move without restriction. They caused a sensation.

Bazaar’s window displays were eye-catching and, in some cases, alarming. The buzz they generated led to queues far down the street as shoppers jostled to get in and buy. Mary established a ‘hand-to-mouth’ production cycle. The day’s sales paid for the fabric, which was then turned into new stock overnight for the next day.

Although arduous, this replenished Bazaar’s rails with short runs of new patterns. It satisfied buyers’ desire for fresh, unique looks at cheap costs. Bazaar was one of the few shops providing an alternative to the ‘mature’ styles of other high-fashion designers.

“[Mary was a] game changer. For my generation, a teen in the ‘60s, she blew away the twinset and pearls and covering your knees and brought in the mini and shoes you could walk, or even run in.“
– Jenni Murray (BBC Woman’s Hour presenter).

It also provided a vastly different shopping experience to other shops. At Bazaar, loud music, free drinks, clever window displays, and longer hours created a ‘scene’ that often lasted late into the evening. Young women flocked to Bazaar.

Mary liberated a generation.

The Stunning Simplicity of a Mod Revolution

Mary’s collections were stunningly modern in their simplicity. She had a fascination with the unexpected. One of her early designs from 1958, a three-piece dress in grey flannel, features a hat, knickerbockers, and a tunic-style shift: a stunning ensemble that reinvents Victorian undergarments as a bizarre type of daywear.

Her irreverent style is also evident in her range of men’s cardigans long enough to be worn as dresses, as well as white plastic collars to brighten jumpers and dresses. Such styles made it simple for young consumers to buy into ‘being modern’. And subverted traditional gender roles.

Mary was a one-woman wrecking ball when it came to shattering the norm.

She popularised the higher-than-high hemline in response to her consumers’ requests for skirts that were ‘shorter, shorter’. The look quickly gained popularity, especially when worn by popular models such as Twiggy.

She named her creation the ‘mini skirt’, named after her favourite car, the Mini Cooper. But she was also the woman who introduced the world to hot pants, the skinny rib jumper, go-go boots, paintbox makeup kits and waterproof mascara.

Whatever comes to mind when you think of ‘60s fashion, Mary was likely behind it…

She took advantage of the ‘60s fascination with new materials. She was the first designer to use PVC, creating ‘wet look’ garments. Yet her aesthetic was more than just appealing to the fashionable. It also represented insurrection. She grew her business into a global brand by demonstrating to women that they could dress for themselves. And encourage the breakdown of old hierarchies. Mary once said:

“Middle-age businessmen would beat on the window and shout, ‘It’s obscene, it’s disgusting!’ Extraordinary, isn’t it?”

The revolution was well underway and there was no turning back now.

The Dawn of the Hot Pants and the Never-Ending Revolt

Mary established herself as a commercial and cultural powerhouse when London’s boutique culture was still in its infancy. Her designs became a manifestation of women’s freedom, and a symbol of liberty following the campaign for female birth control. Women could enjoy their sexuality without the worry of becoming pregnant. Mary encouraged this newfound freedom. Her clothes represented it. Mary said:

“I think the Sixties mini was the most self-indulgent, optimistic fashion ever devised: young, liberated and exuberant – and the beginning of women’s lib.”

She invented hot pants in 1966 and the same year, received an OBE. Probably for the hot pants. By that year, she had three shops in London and an expanding international market. By the end of the decade, she was the UK’s most well-known fashion designer, with an unprecedented commercial reach.

At one time, up to seven million women owned at least one of her items.

As the decade progressed, so did her ever-expanding product line, which included menswear for the first time as well as beds, carpets, dressmaking fabrics, glasses and sunglasses, hats, jewellery, mugs, paints, stationery, umbrellas, wallpapers, wine and much more.

And the 1970s didn’t stop her. She caused another sensation in 1975 by launching a line of cosmetics and skincare goods for men. The dissipation of traditional gender roles was complete.

In 1990 she was awarded the prestigious Hall of Fame Award by the British Fashion Council, recognising her outstanding contribution to British fashion. She became a Dame in the 2015 New Year’s Honours list. Twiggy once said:

“[Mary had] such an influence on young girls in the late ‘50s and ‘60s. She revolutionised fashion and was a brilliant female entrepreneur. The 1960s would have never been the same without her.”

We lost Dame Mary Quant only last year. She died on April 13^th, 2023 at the age of 93.

The Delightful Birth of Hot Pants

I do love my hot pants but Mary was more than this, one of the most iconic fashion designers of all time, known for her business acumen and ingenuity.

She was a design and retail pioneer who popularised super-high hemlines and many of the iconic fashion pieces of the ‘60s. As well as many other irreverent designs that helped shape the Swinging Sixties.

For 68 years, she reigned supreme at the top of counterculture fashion. She was a true innovator whose stylish designs combined comfort and functionality. Taking inspiration from the Mod generation, she created clothes that let women feel comfortable.

These clothes appealed to a new generation of post-war women. They wanted to shake off the shackles of their parents to embrace the freedom of the decade and the spirit of revolution. Yet, it was shocking. But that was kinda the point.

Mary’s clothes were a defiant statement against the establishment. Her influence is still felt all over the world in the clothes women wear today. Those short skirts you love so much? You have Mary to thank.

We will remember Mary for her irreverent approach to fashion, paving the way for a fresh look for an entire generation. She transformed fashion, moving it away from the rigid styles of the 1950s into a new age that was fresh, fun and unorthodox. She was a pioneer not just of a new era of women’s fashion but a new era for women.

Mary was a great fashion innovator who changed the world through fashion.

“Clothes are not serious, they are here to enjoy. We can all have such fun – there are no rules anymore.”
– Dame Mary Quant.

Toodle-Pip :}{:

Post UF: What does her fashion mean to you, reader?