Quant by Quant
This is the re-edition of British designer Mary Quant's first autobiography, published in 1966.
In her autobiography, Mary Quant tells her story in such a sincere way, so much that it feels like you are having a conversation with her. The story starts from her family life, her school years in Goldsmiths College where she also meets her future husband Alexander. It is "marvelous" (she uses this word so often) to discover how she became the fashion icon she is by making a revolution, something that not anyone has a chance to do.
In fact as Ernestine Carter, a fashion journalist of the time, wrote "It is given to a fortunate few to be born at the right time, in the right place, with the right talents. In recent fashion there are three: Chanel, Dior and Mary Quant."
Mary Quant was quite a rule breaker. As she writes "Rules are invented for lazy people who don't want to think for themselves". Most probably this was her starting point when she decided together with Alexander and their partner Archie to open Bazaar in King's Road in 1955 and design her own clothes, after having worked in a millinery workshop. The book is a good reminder of the fact that revolutionary fashion always comes from changes in the society. "Good designers know that to have any influence they must keep in step with public needs, public opinion and that intangible "something in the air". In fact, Mary Quant created the Chelsea girl, the cool London girl who made the world jealous of London. She wanted to do fashion for everyone, especially for the youth. She used synthetic fabrics, some for the first time in fashion, and in a moment where couture was starting to disappear (Balenciaga retired in 1968) she started doing mass production for big markets like US. She firmly said "What ready-to-wear does today, the couturiers confirm tomorrow." The wind was starting to change direction. Mary Quant shocked many fashion insiders by making fun fashion shows with music and dancing models as well as introducing for the first time the mini skirt.
Having international clients and a growing business pushed Mary Quant to work with strict deadlines and with many collections at the same time. In fact in the book she describes what does being a fashion designer mean: "Fashion is a frightening business to be in; all the time you have to force yourself to think ahead, you have to try to think further ahead than anyone else. You are endlessly trying to produce something absolutely new and on a deadline".
It almost seems that even Quant herself was surprised about all that she achieved by following her instinct and the signals coming from the youth of Swinging Sixties. But this is in fact what we need to remember. At the end fashion is the result of that "something in the air".
It is a pity that the book has a few, and not interesting, pictures.
