All language subtitles for Quant.2021.1080p.WEB.H264-CBFM

I think the point of fashion

is not to get bored with
looking at somebody.

I think the point of clothes...
for women,

to be, one, that you're noticed.

Two, that you look sexy.

And three, that you feel good.

I can't see that we wear them
to keep warm.

Mary, somehow, knew what
a girl in the street wanted.

The miniskirt.

She just picked up
what was in their subconscious.

We wanted to dance to The Beatles.

(SCREAMING)

We wanted to wear miniskirts.

We didn't want to look like
a duchess.

Who turned the miniskirt into
a worldwide phenomenon?

And without a doubt,
it was Mary Quant.

Youth at the time was a lot about
wearing something

that older people didn't like.

Oh, I can't say
that I particularly approve.

English fashion has always been
notoriously rebellious.

She was an innovator,
she was a rule-breaker,

she empowers women.

Clothes are a sort of statement
about oneself,

or what one wants to be.

What she did was liberate
those girls.

She gave them a context.

It was a really rich period
of change.

And fashion was a huge part of this.

If a designer really catches
a fashion editor's eye,

anything is possible, really.

This amazing British woman

with this sense of freedom
and disruption and innovation

really created a global look.

I found it difficult to believe
when I first met her,

that she really was
this bundle of dynamite

that had changed everything
in fashion

from the way it was previously.

I think, in a funny way, must have
anticipated what people wanted.

Was this just chance, do you think?

Absolute chance, absolute luck. I
mean, I think luck really is timing.

# On our block, all of the guys

# Call her Flamingo

# Cos her hair glows like the sun

# And her eyes can light the skies

# When she walks, she moves so fine

# Like a flamingo

# When she walks by

# She brightens up the neighbourhood

# Oh, every guy

# Would make her his
if he just could

# If she just would. #

I really think it, in a way,
goes back to the war.

It was an extraordinary reaction
with the end of the war

when we'd won the war
and lost so much at the same time.

There was a new generation
came romping through,

with huge confidence
and, er, high spirit.

And the generation that should have
been controlling everything

just let us do it.

You were brought up in Wales,
in Pembrokeshire.

What sort of childhood did you have?

Oh, blissful,
because I loved Pembrokeshire.

My brother more or less ran wild,
you know, with the cliffs

and studying the birds
and scrambling.

We'd take off in the morning
and just...

That doesn't sound like the daughter

of Welsh Baptist schoolteachers
somehow.

Well, the war was on, you know,
we were being shunted

from one school to another
and managed to escape school,

you know, whole summers on end.

I think Mary Quant had
a really extraordinary time

during the Second World War.

I mean, she roamed a bit wild
round the countryside,

playing cricket and hanging out
with her brother Tony

and having...just having
a good time.

A sort of quite tomboyish existence
almost.

And I think maybe
that period of relative freedom

really stayed with her.

I was the usual split personality
as a child.

One minute climbing trees,
only wanting to play with the boys

and throw stones and steal apples
and all the rest of it.

But equally, there's the other side
where I adored dolls and clothes.

Most girls are guided in their
dress sense by their mothers.

How were you dressed
when you were a child?

A cousin who was a very good little
girl, never wore her clothes out.

And though they were
completely right for her,

I knew they were wrong for me.
I had a square face and I was...

..a tough, stomping thing,
not pretty at all.

And they were just utterly wrong,
I knew this from the age of three

and became completely self-conscious
about clothes from that date on.

I used to start doing things
to my school uniform,

hitching it up to be more daring.

I liked my skirts short

mainly because I wanted to run
and catch the bus.

I saw no reason why my childhood
shouldn't last forever.

It seemed to me all naturalness went
as you grew up

and you had to wear
these terrible artificial things.

I thought children were
much more beautiful

and I wanted to keep this element
of youngness in clothes.

The day I was 13, I cried all day
cos old age had struck.

This meant what to you?

Growing up meant to me getting into
stockings and suspenders.

What do you call them,
garters, don't you?

And high heels and having artificial
hair and artificial nails.

You know,
bosom that came into the room

about two minutes before
the rest of you.

And all the horrors of what appeared
to me being adult would bring on.

The leftover from
the end of the '40s

and the very early '50s

was still celebrating

the hourglass figure.

The big moment in fashion, post-war,

was absolutely the arrival
of Christian Dior's new look,

which was actually, in a way,

sort of a reaction or response to
the tragedy and horror of war

and a desire to return to a time
pre-war, a more nostalgic time.

In the beginning of
the 20th century,

fashion simply wasn't
a very English thing to do.

I think the French owned it, really.

The period of the '50s
is often described as

a golden age of couture, and it was,

but couture, of course,
is about making

specific dresses and clothes
for specific customers

for a super-elite, a super-rich,
entitled clientele in Paris.

That world was so restrictive
and so small

that...a generation of
new young women grew up

who wanted something
reflective of the modern era.

I hated fashion the way it was.
I wanted clothes to be

far more casual and easy-going
and yet sort of sexy and things.

We didn't want to look like duchess

and we certainly didn't want
to look like a duchess

the way a duchess looked
two years ago.

I wanted to design clothes
for real, live people.

I wanted to design clothes
for young people.

You got a lot of your basic ideas
for design,

or your training in design
and thinking out of design,

from art college.

Contemporary culture owes
almost everything, I think,

to the art school culture in the UK
in the '50s and '60s.

Do you think you'd have been
just as good a designer

if you hadn't been
to the art school?Oh, no.

And I think I was lucky
that I had a general training

rather than being allowed
to specialise so early.

I went to some cutting classes,

found myself a table there

and got on with what I wanted to do.

Nobody said, no, you're not supposed
to do it like that.

So there I was, I just started
making and designing

clothes for...people like me,
you know, other art students.

When I was at Goldsmith's

we went up to the Royal College
for the Friday night dances.

That was where it was happening,
as the phrase was at the time.

It was good because we understood
each other's art.

We were all one gang, really.

The thing about Mary is that she's
a nice, Welsh country girl, really,

come up to London,
and she meets Alexander,

who is this long, gangly aristocrat.

Fun loving...

..confident person.

There was a lot of theatre
with my dad.

He spent most of his time
at Goldsmith's walking around

with a film cannister under his arm

cos he was involved in
some kind of film project.

You know, he had a way about him,

he had a charm and charisma
that just, you know,

just whipped everybody up

and wants to go along for,
you know, this amazing ride.

He lived a lifestyle that was
very, um...intoxicating.

You know, he very much was a muse
and, er...

..and an inspiration for her.

How did I meet her? Well,
I didn't meet her the first time.

The first time was at
the Chelsea Arts Ball,

end of my first term at art school.

I hadn't seen her at the art school,
it was a big place,

but on the great float
which came past,

which was our art school's float,

was this enormous pile of balloons

with this practically naked girl
sitting on top, and, um...

..I didn't exactly fall in love
with her at first sight,

but I just had this great
sort of surge of lust.

And I determined to try
and make friends with her next term.

So I found out where she was,
that sort of thing,

and joined the same life class.
I was terribly shy.

One day, I just went up and said,

"Could I borrow some drawing pins
cos I don't have any?" She said yes.

So I was so emboldened by that,

I, um...asked her to the cinema or
something that evening and she came.

And, er...

..we never looked back, except
in anger, since then. (CHUCKLING)

They very quickly became an item,

which in those days
was rather frowned upon.

He was, like, really tall,
six foot two,

and all the girls loved him,
kind of like

a bit of an impoverished aristocrat.

And he had this kind of
air of confidence about him,

and Mary was...
Obviously they adored each other

because they complemented
each other.

He had all those qualifications

of knowing people
who were socialites,

and she had that inner resilience,
curiosity, creativity.

I think what Alexander brought to
the party was a sort of insouciance

and devil-may-care-ness.

I think it was like,
yeah, whatever, let's be bad.

Let's be even worse than bad,
let's be...let's push...

..the social mores as far as we can.

He...he realised that
that needed to be done.

What I want to know first of all,
Mary Quant, is whether

you saw yourself, right at
the beginning, as a revolutionary.

No. We saw ourselves as
sort of outcasts, really,

and trying to...
somehow gang together in Chelsea,

er, with a very few other people
who felt as outcast as we did.

Why were you outcasts?Just
didn't like the way things were,

didn't like the way things looked,
the way people lived.

My first job was in a workroom
making hats at £2 10s a week

for rich people and duchesses
and Lady This and Lady That.

And it would take me five days

to make one hat for one Lady Bloggs
to go to Ascot,

and it would rain
and she'd bring it back next day

and say, "My husband doesn't like
it." And the whole thing...

It got through to me that this was

unrealistic, out of date
and nonsense.

That one person couldn't spend five
days making a hat for one woman.

That was tough,
cos I had to live on it.

Things were rather grim then.

Were they so very grim?

They were a bit gloomy
if you were very young.

You had no money, no independence.

We wanted a more casual way of life
and a pleasanter way of life.

When you see the coffee bars came
along, this was another revolution.

I met Mary Quant
through her boyfriend then,

Alexander Plunket Greene,
in my coffee bar.

Er...and got to know him.
He used to...

My father, Archie McNair,

was one of the funders of
the Mary Quant business.

And he was the...
he was the chairman of Mary Quant,

I think, from the start of it,
until when he retired in 1987.

He didn't look the part at all.

When I first met him,
I think he was wearing a bowler hat,

umbrella and briefcase,
all this sort of thing,

and I thought, good God, but in fact
made great friends with him.

He was the first person to see what
was happening in Chelsea, clearly,

from any point of view,
from our point of view

and from a commercial point of view.

One of his early ventures
was a coffee bar,

at number 128, King's Road.

He had the first... I think he had

the second espresso machine
in London in the mid-'50s.

The King's Road was the place.
Everyone went down the King's Road,

for coffee houses
more than anything.

Although it's very fashionable now,

it was far more colourful
and it was just very exciting.

Gradually, a lot of young people
started showing their creativity,

whether they were painters
or artists or poets

or film-makers or photographers
and would-be models.

Everybody sort of intermingled,
and it was a really good, fun buzz.

There were lots of these
kind of young people's club,

I don't know what you call them,
R

The old trad bands would try
and funk up the music a bit.

But it changed the whole shape of...

..what English musicians were doing.

It was all up for grabs, you know?

You know, this was 10 years
before The Beatles, I suppose,

or getting on that way,
and I wore hair more or less

down to my shoulders, and Mary wore
skirts halfway up her thighs,

and everybody else was wearing them
four or five inches below the knee.

I think that when you meet
really special artists,

musicians and designers who've got
a special talent like that,

they can't help themselves, and
it will come out one way or another.

I'd become more and more interested
in this idea of, um...

..well, at least that there were
a few people like me who didn't want

these clothes that existed
even before you got into them.

I had this girlfriend
who was interested in clothes,

and I was interested in clothes too,

and he was interested in expanding
his businesses in the King's Road,

so we all three got together,
and that was the start of it.

I persuaded them...

..to start a little shop in the
King's Road, which we called Bazaar.

I didn't know anything about
clothes and fashions and so forth.

But I did have faith in
Alexander and Mary.

I thought they were both able people
and likely to get it right.

Alexander had
the promotional skills,

Mary had the creativity,

and Archie McNair,
who had trained as a lawyer,

was a businessman.

I think they put up about £5,000
each, and we started Bazaar,

I suppose the first boutique
in London,

and I made the clothes for it,
and it was, you know,

where fools step in, nobody said
you can't do it. We just did it.

When she opened Bazaar in 1955,

the sort of thing she wanted to sell
in Bazaar just wasn't available.

So she knew she'd got to design
and make it herself.

We used to go into
various manufacturers

and say we want to buy some dresses.

If they weren't absolutely rude,
they'd pretend to take an order,

the stuff wouldn't turn up

because they didn't believe in
these kids with a shop.

The thing was, we opened the door
of the shop and there was a queue,

people were four deep outside
and flooded in.

Bazaar was a vitally, lively,
little boutique

and it was like a light went on.
I mean, it was just fantastic colour

and exuberant and young.

Young.

So it was a sort of social scene
as well.

It was very unorthodox.
People had to take their clothes off

in the middle of the floor and try
things on out of a packing case,

because there was really
only one changing room.

It was such a success, we were just
bowled over from the day we opened.

And what I find amazing
was the windows.

You know, the fact that
she realised that

the mannequins were all completely
wrong for the clothes she was doing

and had these mannequins made in
really cute, sort of boxy shapes.

And suddenly seeing these windows

with these lithe, sporty mannequins,

and these clothes that we actually
wanted to buy ourselves,

had nothing to do with our mothers.

And she really designed on
sort of an ad-hoc basis,

she had no formal training
as a fashion designer.

They were buying buy-direct patterns
and adapting them.

They were being sewn up in the flat,

she'd take them to the shop to sell
them, then go and buy more fabric.

And that's really how it started.

I design for myself
and for my friends.

But enough of them
bought your clothes

to keep you afloat at the beginning.
Yes, rather too many.

It exploded, sort of, under us,

and I think we spent many years
dashing along trying to keep up.

She was an early mod,

very cool
and very streamlined looks.

A fashion that really
rebelled against

everything that we saw
in the 1950s.

I remember buying
an outfit of Mary's.

It was purple, for a start.

And I'd never seen
anything purple before,

but it was a sort of tight top
and swinging skirt

that did actually move
when you walked.

In the clothes that she created,

you could run for the bus,
do what you want, you felt great.

I think Mary became so successful

because she literally gave people
clothes they could move in.

I mean, there weren't clothes
you could move in.

The clothes were very short
and very supple.

The shoes were very flat, so you
could run, dance, jump, you know.

In fact, all the clothes are very
simple,

but put together they have a very
strong look that said somehow,

"Look at me. Isn't life marvellous?"

The modern look is sexy...

..witty...

..polished...and dry-cleaned.

It may seem a very everyday concept
now,

but she was the first person,
really,

that designed pinafore dresses.

They could wear a skinny-rib sweater
underneath

during the day
when they were working,

put different shoes on and go
straight out in the evening.

I think Mary Quant's use of textiles
were key to what she did.

Rough tweeds, she used linens,
plain fabrics, simple colours,

and she really wanted to create

something youthful
and sophisticated.

Lots of people had gingham curtains
in the kitchen,

but nobody had ever made
a red-and-white gingham skirt.

I think it must have been copied

by every girl who walked past
the window of Bazaar.

I loved all those bold
black and whites.

I bought men's suitings
from Harrods

to make dresses from these
pink, striped men's suitings

of Prince of Wales checks
and things like that.

She had this kind of way
of changing classics.

I did a shoot

and the editor tried to explain
to me about the male cardigan

that became the female cardigan,
it was because of Mary Quant.

Persuaded knitwear manufacturers
to make men's cardigans,

like Rex Harrison cardigans,
but 10 inches longer,

which was a very short dress length.

And had elongated shirts
made like court dresses.

She would take the undergarments
that men would wear,

jersey in particular, and turn them
into the kind of clothes

that became
the Mary Quant statement.

Mary really understood colour.

She'd put two or three colours
together, and you think, what?

And then, when you put them
together, they looked amazing.

The colours were strong, with the
parroty greens and blue and plum

and yellow ochre
and pinafores and so on.

And the legs would be covered
in the same sort of colour.

I persuaded theatrical manufacturers
to make tights

in all the colours of the clothes.

We didn't have tights before

before Mary Quant, we had stockings.

She invented tights, if you like.

She designed for the girls
in the street, ordinary girls.

She just picked up
what was in their subconscious.

And that was the magic
about her products.

As soon as people saw it,
they went for it.

She had a very clear vision.

She was always quite clear
on what she wanted.

And it took off, and in two years
they'd opened a second Bazaar,

which was much larger,

and that was completely designed
by Terence Conran.

And then it just went from there.

The clothes I produced were
so acceptable

to the Chelsea girl at that time.

She was far more emancipated
than the equivalent French girl.

The young in England
were in that mood.

It is handy if you can discover,
or seem to discover,

a trend in society.
Now, I'm only asking you

whether you felt conscious
that you were pioneering a trend.

No, I didn't, I really didn't.

But you see, I think
this is what a designer is.

I feel a designer has to be
someone who's permanently bored,

permanently bored with the way
people look at any particular time.

One should live in the future,

wanting to change things.

When fashion resonates,

it's always in tune with activism,
in some respects.

And when you look at
the chronology of politics,

especially feminist politics,

you can kind of see
how fashion has evolved.

So when you put the spotlight
on the '60s and on Mary Quant,

there's a clear correlation
between the women's movement

and the clothes
that she was designing.

Now!What do we want?

Equal education!

What do we want?

Some men have still got the idea
of the Victorian era,

you know, where they come home drunk
and bash you about,

you're only good enough
to have children and get married.

You should be allowed to have your
own feelings, your own life,

not be dominated by men
all the time.

It's ridiculous because half the men
of this world are wrong

in any bloody case,
you know what I mean?

I want to be understood.

Sure you do, Susan.

We all want to be understood.

Even your mother.

I think a woman had to be
and had to dress

and had to act the part of the way
the man in her life saw her.

And she was never allowed
to dress...

..just the part of being her.

They were sort of
perfect princesses,

cooking and cleaning
for their husbands,

wearing immaculate
sort of twinsets and pearls

and petticoats and lace.

But don't forget your greatest
attachment, your husband.

Clothes are a sort of
statement about...

..oneself, or what one wants to be.

It was about responding
to a need in women,

responding to not just a need,

but a demand that they have clothes
that reflected who they were.

# And don't tell me what to do... #

Given the pill was the only
contraceptive that actually worked,

a woman could then really be
in charge of her own life,

decide when she has children.

# Don't put me on display... #

The pill, contraception,
helped to...

..liberate you. It did.

# ..To be free

# To live my life
the way I want... #

And this allows them to plan
both a private life, family life,

and a career life.

Mary's vision was to bring clothes

to young working girls.

You know, these are girls that had
their first pay packets,

they were the first girls
to have jobs and a career.

It was the first time women could
plan and have their own careers.

If you stay on in the service,

it offers a career which can lead
to the very top.

Therefore the first time
they had their own money

and made their own choices.
I think a revolution was going on

which fashion people
hadn't realised.

I think the change of focus had gone

from the rich,
international couture thing

to the young working girl herself.
She was going to set the pace

in fashion and decide what was right
and what was wrong.

She knew who she was aiming at.

Mary herself said that it was
her customers going into Bazaar

that really the miniskirt
evolved from.

I think she started the miniskirt,
didn't she?

That is the number one question.
She started the miniskirt.

Did Mary Quant invent the miniskirt?

Something that people will discuss
forever.

Didn't she? Didn't she? Didn't she?

Is the mini truly yours?

Oh, yes, because the Chelsea girl,
she had the best legs in the world.

She wanted the short skirts.

So, scandal...She wore it, she had
the courage to wear it. My God.

I know that the French guy reckoned
it was him.

In 1961,

this new designer, Andre Courreges,

showed this couture collection
in Paris, with skirts

one or two inches above the knee.

She called it...

..the miniskirt...

..because she loved the Mini car

and she thought
it was a wonderful thing.

They called it the miniskirt,
but really, at that point,

it was just a skirt above the knee.

I mean, even the Queen was wearing
a skirt above the knee.

Mary was the one that got them
shorter and shorter.

The girls that came in to buy it
would say,

"I want my skirt length
shorter, shorter..."

Shorter. Shorter!

The London girl was rolling it up
an inch shorter.

Then I'd go an inch shorter
and then, you know, it just...

..it was the opposite.

You know, you looked around and
your friends' skirts were shorter

and you said, "Mum, will you shorten
my dress for me?"

You didn't shorten it by an inch
cos that didn't mean anything.

So you shortened it by three inches.

And then, once tights were available
for everybody,

you could have it as short as you
wanted, so they got shortened again.

So they ended up like six inches,
eight inches above the knee.

I thought the idea of the miniskirt
was designed by a guy

because, you know, you'd go
in the back of a pub

or beer club...

The miniskirt was perfect for that.

The whole 1960s was
one massive party.

Party.

Which was super-lovely.

Women may now be
irreversibly emancipated.

And if that is so, we're entering
a quite different kind of society.

Literally, for thousands
and thousands of years,

women have had to worry about

whether sex was going
to make them pregnant.

And suddenly,
for the first time in history,

you could have sex
and you didn't have to worry.

And I think this freedom
went to everybody's heads.

With the '60s, there wasn't guilt.

It was about...living in your body
and enjoying things.

Whether it's to be attractive

or whether it's to be happy
with being yourself

and confident with being yourself,
or both or all these things,

clothes can very much help you
play these roles.

Wear these clothes, be the kind of
woman that you want to be.

For kids today, you know,
in the 21st century,

that's a sort of given,
but back in the '50s and '60s,

her clothes gave permission
for women to be the person

that they wanted to be.

What she did was liberate
those girls. She gave them life.

She gave them a context.

I can see very easily, looking back,
the clothes are marvellous

and they demonstrate
so sometimes absurdly

the exuberance of the mood then.

The kind of wow, look at me,
I'm free, I'm female, I'm alive,

and isn't it smashing to be female?

The miniskirt was just so much fun.

And it epitomised the fun
and the frivolity

of the 1960s in the King's Road.

Like so many things in fashion,

I don't think one person often
really designs a particular trend.

It's an emergence.

Who turned the miniskirt
into a worldwide phenomenon?

And without a doubt,
it was Mary Quant.

But, Mary, isn't the miniskirt
rather obvious,

simply blaringly enticing?

After all, it seems that few girls
actually have the legs, hips

and above all the panache
to carry it off majestically?

But who wants to be majestic?

People either loved what I was doing
or hated it.

Many times, there'd be people
in the street who'd go...ah!

Old gentlemen used to come in and
really shake their umbrellas at me.

Oh, I can't say that I particularly
approve of some of the styles.

And shout, "Obscene! Disgusting!
Degenerate!" You know.

They couldn't explain why
it was obscene or degenerate

except that to them,
to certain people, it was.

The youth at the time
was a lot about...

..wearing something that
old people didn't like.

You'd think, it must be good.

It was a time of experimentation.

Like with drugs and fashion
and especially music.

The Beatles, they sounded like an
R

love and girls
and that sort of teenage stuff.

The Stones were rebellious,

popular because they were confident
and arrogant and glamorous.

Both bands changed the way
that we looked at ourselves.

They changed the way we dressed.

I often talk about The Who being
onstage looking at their audience,

copying what people in the audience
were wearing.

So, the following week,
we would be wearing

what the people in the audience
were wearing the week before.

We would get the credit
for the fashion change.

Mary Quant was quite conscious

of the fact that she was
at the heart of a youthquake.

She knew,
by the time we get to the '60s,

that what was happening around her

reflected what she was doing
in fashion.

Mary Quant's first show
that I ever saw,

the models came kind of dancing in

and they were full of life
and it was just elevating.

And I think we all wanted
to stand up and cheer.

Alexander understood presentation.
He understood this thing

of sexy young girls doing fun shows
and with music.

He would put all that together.

When you did her show,
she didn't want

everybody just mincing down
the catwalk exactly the same.

She wanted the personality

of each individual girl
to show her outfit.

The models all had the new
Vidal Sassoon short, swinging hair,

as Mary herself had.

More than 60 outfits from the Quant
collection presented in a manner

that leaves the spectators,
and the models, breathless.

(ANIMATED CHATTER)

Paul, it's Miranda.

(ALL CHATTING AT ONCE)

I'm not really concerned with
the design,

in the way Mary and her gang are,

and I wouldn't attempt to interfere
in what the design should be, ever.

But I am of course concerned
in the business

of bringing this thing
to the attention of the public.

Darling!Hello.

Plunket Greene was the wind beneath
her wings and sheltered her

and enabled her to get on with
all the creative side of things.

And also, I think he gave her
some confidence

to go out into the wide world.

She and Alexander
and some business people

decided that they'd take
a few models to New York

and show off Mary's collection
of clothes

and introduce her, basically,
to America.

And I think, at that time,

America was very behind England
in the fashion way.

When we came downstairs for
breakfast wearing our trouser suits,

our Mary Quant trouser suits,
feeling cool, you know, walking in,

and they wouldn't let us in
cos we were wearing trousers.

You would go into a hotel,
you'd get in a lift,

and then people would say, "Oh,
where did you get that haircut?"

And what about this
and what about that?

They all wanted to know
and be part of this whole new look.

She went to New York,

not with great aspirations to become

a kind of multi-global
fashion entity,

but it happened almost by mistake

because what she was doing
connected with the zeitgeist.

And I think it was Women's Wear
Daily that saw her collection

and just went crazy for it
and went, you know, this is it,

this is what we want to be wearing,

this is what the girls of America
want to be wearing.

They were absolutely mad
for Mary Quant

and would sort of look at her
in a rather different way

because she was so swinging London.

And it's a certain Britishness
that the world needed at the time.

America was so obsessed
with the British invasion.

'The cries of the crowd roar
with pitch and volume...'

when The Beatles entered New York,

there was literally...
there was pandemonium.

'3,000 screaming teenagers arrived
at New York's Kennedy Airport

'to greet, you guessed it,
The Beatles.

'This rock and roll group
has taken over

'as the kingpins of musical
appreciation among the young...'

It was quite extraordinary to see it
and slightly terrifying as well

because they were going
completely mad.

You know, and, oh, my God,
they're screaming at my boyfriend.

This is great.

If The Beatles provided
the soundtrack,

Mary certainly provided
all the visual images.

And she was right at the centre,

giving to the world
something that is so British.

And then was the beginning
of the Union Jack

and Carnaby Street.

I think it just caught
people's imagination

and drew people
to this country.

It did really start with Mary

and it really put this country
on the map.

'Clothes by Quant are building
a reputation in the States as well.'

Very quickly,
particularly people like JCPenney,

realised that Mary could add
so much to their sportswear,

dresswear, separates collections,

and it seemed, within
a remarkably short space of time,

she was producing

four, six, eight collections a year
for them.

So many things are different

because you know very well,
they've got to translate

the different fabrics and so on,
so you can work from drawings a lot,

but you must be in touch
with the sales people

so everyone knows what's going on.

I think, you know, I think it can be
terribly exciting, I really do.

Well, it'd be great. Obviously
it'd take a lot of energy,

but I'd love to do it, really.
It's not a question

whether you'd love to do it,
you've bloody well got to do it now.

They were going to meet
the head of JCPenney,

and they were really excited
about it,

and they're on their way
to Washington.

So they're all nice and relaxed,

they're having champagne and caviar
in first class.

About five minutes before
they come in to land...

..a crew member comes out
and they say,

"We just wanted to say that you'll
be getting off the plane first

"because they've arranged for
a camera crew

"press and photographers
to be at the airport."

Well, Mary was like...

And she went into a panic.

She got up to go to the loo,
she wouldn't come out of the loo.

Knocking on the door, "Come out."
She said, "No, I can't, I can't."

(KNOCKING)

So they let everybody
get off the plane

and Mary's looking out of the window

and she can see this barrage
of photographers and a film crew

and in the end,
the press and everybody left

and then she just scurried out
and held a bag near her face.

(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)

Will you stay back?

Actually hates sort of
being photographed.

She dreads it more than hates it
when it happens.

As you've probably observed,
she's tremendously shy.

She's frightfully good at it
in a way. She looks like herself,

exactly like what
Mary Quant ought to look like.

And wears her own clothes rather
well. she Has sleepless nights

before being interviewed by
somebody or being photographed.

I'm sure the working relationship
between Mary and Plunket

was the strength of the whole thing.

Because she was very shy,
she needed a big personality

to sometimes hide behind.

And without him, I don't think
she could have taken on

the role of being
the front of the brand.

I don't think she could have done it
without him.

He was always there at Mary's side.

And quite often, he would kind of

take the first question
and start it off,

then, when you could see that she
was ready to go and she chipped in,

he'd kind of fade into the
background a bit and let her talk.

And once she got going,
she was fine.

She's a diffident person.

Some people say she's shy,
but I think she's more, you know...

..reserved than shy.

She had her husband who was
a brilliant impresario,

entrepreneur, great at
the smooth talking, great at the PR.

It was fantastic. 4,000 kids turned
up, had to get the fire department

cos they thought the floor would
collapse, then me and the girls

had to have police protection
to get us to the hotel.

The Beatles had been a week before,
the place was so mad about England.

Never seen anything like it.

You know, my father brought
an energy,

but also was incredibly innovative
in terms of marketing and PR.

And Alexander was also very good
at speaking to the press.

My father encouraged Alexander to
go and take journalists out to lunch

because he could see that he just
had a very good way with people.

Alexander, you know,
he did like to smoke

and he certainly liked to drink,

so I think that the living was
kind of quite 24/7.

I would say, right, who'd like tea,
who'd like coffee?

And Alexander would say.

"Sarah, forget the tea and coffee,

"we're just going to have
gin and tonic."

And Mary would say, "No, coffee."

And we're talking 10 o'clock
in the morning here.

And Alexander would say, "OK.
No, just gin and tonics."

Mary was always trying to keep him
a bit healthier.

But he was a fun, big character.

One of the big things that made

everybody think of Mary Quant
forever was that Alexander said

that he'd cut her pubic hair
into a heart shape.

Well, this was completely shocking

cos nobody ever talked about
pubic hair, ever.

So that definitely made an impact.

Everybody wanted to know

who was this man
and who was this woman.

He got tremendous coverage.

I mean, the column inches
he achieved on behalf of Bazaar,

it would have cost a fortune
to buy that sort of space.

You said that you recognised that,
in part at least,

the phenomenal growth of the idea

of the King's Road
the Chelsea Set and so forth.

Then, from the publicity
given to it,

and the way in which writers
wrote it up in magazines.

Fashion editors, they're always
out there in the world,

they're always seeing what's new,
what's hot.

And yeah, if a designer really
catches the fashion editor's eye,

anything is possible, really.

So the revolution that was
taking place in fashion

was also taking place
in fashion journalism.

So, in the way that

new, young designers were making
clothes that young people liked,

there were new, young
fashion editors

and there was a wealth of
new, young magazines.

We had British Vogue, Queen,

so there were a few
essential magazines.

And the fashion editors were
really powerful.

You chose this girl
because she could waterski

and there isn't a single one
of her waterskiing.

The sort of girls we want to see
photographed in our clothes

look as real as possible
and alive as possible.

And then combine that with
photographers like Bailey...

And there was this kind of
bunch of poshies

running around creating fashion

but it was about
to be broken in half

because of course Bailey,
David Bailey,

he brought this kind of grittiness.

And he was just magnificent,
a maverick.

And Mary adored Terry Donovan.

Adored him. And he was
an incredibly good photographer,

both technically, but just
the way he worked with people

and the confidence
and the love and the fun.

And then let's not forget
the models.

I mean, the '60s to me
was essentially about models.

There had never been anything like
her in the history of the world.

You know, Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton,

you know, all these incredible
English girls.

They had a lot of personality

and I think that was contagious

and people wanted to feel
that energy.

I have been compared to Twiggy,
when I was younger.

And when I was younger, I met her,
and, um, she's so lovely

and she kind of took me
under her wing a bit.

Jean Shrimpton gave me tips on men.

(LAUGHING)

What did she say?I can't say.

(LAUGHING)

It was a time when black models

were not exactly used
in magazines or shows.

You'd see a hand or feet
or, you know, someone's back.

Mary literally put these models
out there.

She proposed a new idea of beauty.

Mary and Alexander were very much...
very much artists.

But what they lacked was, really,
a great understanding of business

and the reality of it.

I had a running battle with Mary

about the amount of cloth
she bought for her designs.

I mean, huge amount in relation to
the turnover of the business.

And it was due to
the lack of discipline

and converting the cloth
into clothes,

we were losing a lot of money.

I think what he saw is that Mary
Quant could be marketed as a brand

and they could do very well
with licensing the brand

and also licensing designs.

Archie's concept
of introducing licensing

meant that Mary would be producing
designs for manufacturers,

like Steinberg's, who produced

her Ginger Group
ready-to-wear collection.

But then they would come up with
the manufacture.

Archie was very much the man
who pushed the licensing,

I think initially
against Mary's wishes.

Licensing allows you
to extend your brand

to new markets, new areas,
new categories,

which can be really exciting
for a brand,

but it's about control and it's
about a sense of understanding

between the licensee
and the licensor.

That's where you've got to
get it right.

She basically believed
she could do it all.

And I think probably, deep down,

there was a resentment of
anybody trying to help her.

Tell me about the pockets.Well,
you know, you'd like to get rid

of those pockets altogether.
I think it makes the whole thing.

It'll save them tenpence,
but so, it makes the dress.

You have to give a little bit
in order to gain.

And sometimes that's not easy.

If you're used to controlling
your business 100% creatively,

then that's going to be very hard
and a struggle.

Nothing went out
without her final say-so.

But it opened up the opportunity
for her to move into all sorts

of different accessories.

It made me interested in underwear
immediately

because I wanted to make
a form of underwear

which was very much
showing the body.

She was the first person to go into
all the accoutrements of a girl.

You know, um...
specifically into make-up,

which I think is one of the...
the big things that she did.

I...I got involved with
the make-up bit because, um...

..now that the clothes were
different, the face was wrong.

She was like, we've revolutionised
the way people wore fashion,

the face then didn't match,

and the face didn't match
because coming out of the 1950s,

it was red lips and it was sort of
blue eye shadow, and she just said,

I'm sorry, but with the kind of
bold colour palette I'm now using,

the face just doesn't match.

And so then she decided
to take on cosmetics.

Right, who's got an eyebrow pencil?

Model girls, top model girls
like Jean Shrimpton,

my friends,
we'd be doing shows together

and the way they approached make-up
was something quite else.

Buying certain sorts of theatrical
make-up and using a technique

which was part colour
and part sculpting and illusion.

She kind of watched women
sort of taking crayons,

you know, using pencils to draw
on freckles,

putting foundation on their lips
to create this new look

of this very kind of
babydoll aesthetic.

She sort of took that
and bottled it.

'Designer Mary Quant is just
one of the great generation

'who has dreamed up a revolutionary
approach to young cosmetics,

'which even department stores
like Selfridges have taken up.'

She did this thing called
Loads of Lash,

and it was a strip of eyelashes,
like in a long strip,

and you could just cut off
what you wanted.

And that's how she was. She kind of,
like...copped on to things,

she was alert, she saw ideas.

I'm so messy, I can never find
the right brush and right bit.

So I wanted a box
where everything's in the same box.

Packaging was part of
selling that dream.

Coming up with the paintbox idea,
it was revolutionary at the time,

to actually her thinking about
how do I put on make-up?

I've got everything in different
places, I make a mess,

I'm going to put it all
in one plastic box.

You lifted the lid
and there was eye shadow

and blusher and lipstick,
all in one, with a mirror.

Honestly, to this day, it makes me
excited thinking of that

because that was unheard of,
it was so new and different,

and Mary's make-up was just...
Oh, you had to have that.

Oh, made of plastic, I love plastic.

Rather than me apologising and
pretending it's gold, you know,

it's, um...it's, you know,
100 carat good plastic.

Did you find that what you were
demanding and wanting as a designer

was being matched by the capacity
of technology to manufacture it?

Yes, I mean, sometimes I think
new ideas come from technology

and sometimes the other way round.

Really, it's how I got into
this shoe thing.

Because I'd never had a pair
of comfy shoes in my life

and I wanted to make shoes that were
like, er, glass or bottles,

and had no seams and no bits
that rub and all that.

You just pour a kind of chewing gum
into a mould

and you get out what you want.

And rather like making jelly.

And so this is how we started
making these shoes.

And already it's like
a Cinderella thing you have,

walking on air
or walking on a glass slipper.

I think one of her greatest
innovations was not her own,

it was actually her ability
to get manufacturers to innovate,

to actually get manufacturers
to go outside their comfort zone.

I know when she did the wet
collection, that was an eye-opener

because it was
so incredibly different.

I'd never seen PVC
in clothes before,

except for a yellow slicker
in Grimsby docks,

for example, for the fishermen.

Now came the award.

A proud moment, surely,
for Mary Quant.

Honoured by winning the award
for Britain.

Her business actually
was a dream business

from the point of view
of a fashion designer.

So many fashion designers had only
been able to turn their ideas

and creations into business if
they've had a good business partner.

I was ambitious,

I think in a way that neither
Alexander nor Mary were,

and I was determined
to develop the business

as best it could be doable.

If we could keep making a success
of what we were doing,

but I wanted to expand.

You've got Archie realises that...

..what Mary is...

..brilliant for

is that, actually,

she's a pen on a piece of paper.

And those drawings...

..can be sent around the world

and turned into hard cash.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGES INTERMINGLING)

She was international.
Everyone in Europe knew about her.

She was big in America.

Last year's American sales
alone topped $2 million.

Apparently she's big
in Australia as well.

Mary Quant comes to Australia.

This was the great power of
Mary Quant, it was the export.

The thing that was growing
at that time was the cosmetics.

And that was becoming
a big business.

By 1970, Quant Cosmetics
was ginormous.

It seemed the whole world
was clamouring for

Mary's make-up and clothes.

We've got agendas coming in
from Finland.

We've got the fittings
at Ginger Group in the morning,

meeting in the afternoon. I'd like
to talk to you about

this USA and Canadian trip.
We've got fabric people coming in.

Wednesday, you're in Manchester
all day

to make this commercial radio tape.
Which can you get me out of?

I thought we didn't need the shops.

So the only real row
I ever had with Mary

was when I said I was
going to sell the shops.

She was furious and I said, well,
you'll be able to design

anything you like,
you won't be tied to clothes.

She was really one of the first
brands to go into licensing

in a very, very big way.

It was quite fresh territory,

and she didn't know
where it was going to go.

What happened was that, from being
a successful design brand,

they went insane.

Mary Quant Ltd, one of the most

astonishing success stories
in the world of fashion.

Licensing manufacturers
on five continents.

It was frenetic,
absolutely frenetic.

We couldn't make it fast enough.

There are thousands of people

working for manufacturers
we design for

who are dependent on Mary jolly well
coming up with the goods.

And if she doesn't do it,

she is letting down people
and endangering their jobs.

The pressure wasn't so much
on Alexander and Archie,

it was all about Mary,

and, you know, if you're Mary,
that's hard.

I'm sure the demands on her were
just we want more and more,

and until you put boundaries down,

I suppose, you know,
it becomes boundary-less.

Everybody is looking to you
for what's next.

Everybody's looking to you
for the next big thing.

Everybody is looking to you
to maintain the machine

that has been built up on your back.

It's just too difficult
to maintain that, day in, day out.

If you think about it,
Twiggy only worked for four years.

She, you know, Twiggy was only
a model for four years.

Um...and The Beatles disbanded
in, I think, 1968.

Do you know?

But Mary had to keep on going.

I think fashion's a pendulum.

So it can only go so far

and it's going to move, there's
going to be a reaction to it.

And I think Quant in the early '60s
was about the future,

they were optimistic and it was Pop.

And then, I think, by the late '60s,
there was a disillusionment

and the new generation
didn't want that.

So they became hippies,
it was bohemianism.

It all went into
the flower power thing

and floaty dresses
and flared, faded jeans.

They looked at vintage fashion,

they looked at recycling, upcycling,

they were wearing ethnic clothes,

so that modernism, the futurism
Mary Quant had brought to fashion

was no longer in style.

London, physically,

was an enormously different town

from the '60s during the '70s.

'From now on, the pound abroad
is worth 14% or so less...'

'Indications claimed this afternoon
of higher prices...'

It had actually gone slower,
it had gone dark,

it had become almost wetter.

The governments
were having problems,

it was just not
the same kind of place.

The Beatles, of course, tragically
split up in '69, far too early.

We hadn't even begun to hear
what they had to say.

And they were gone.
And so, things had changed.

Things had come to an end

and people pined for the country.

I think they watched McCartney
sitting on his farm in Scotland

with Linda, and everyone had
a similar idea.

I'll never forget the video footage
of them having a row

over clay pigeon shooting.

I got it!

I got it.I got it!

Darling, it was falling down dead
by the time you were even there.

You missed it.Christ!

I guess you could say
they embraced countryside life.

I absolutely love...

..cows.
(MOOING)

They're the most fascinating,
gentle and beautiful animals.

(MOOING)

Ten live in the fields near
my house. I love to talk to them.

And they talk to me.

(MOOING)

There's not many things in life
better than falling asleep

in a sunny field and being
licked on the face and woken

by a glorious, inquisitive...

..cow.

Mary had the best of both worlds

in that she had the town pad
in Alexander Square

and she also had this lovely
country house

where she still lives.

You know, the thing is as well,

that Mary very much wanted
to have a baby.

Very, very much wanted
to have a baby

and they tried for a very long time

before finally Orlando came along.

And I mean, I think that was
Mary's personal dream come true.

Here I go.

It's bedtime.

And he announces then, the trees
are red and the grass is blue...

She always had a fantastic
relationship with Orlando.

(ORLANDO GIGGLING)

And he with her.

And I think he fills
a big gap for her.

Privacy to me is all important.

My relationship with Orlando,

though I don't want to hide him away
because I'm so proud of him.

I don't know, I think I was always
aware that things were different.

I was very aware that
home was a private place for her.

There was a slight atmosphere of,
um, sort of bomb shelter.

It was kind of where we went
to hide,

which I think is inevitable

when you've got paparazzi
at the end of the drive.

(SHOUTING)

What's Orlando...? Orlando, hey.

We would go down and see them for
lunch or to stay, um, quite often.

It was quite sort of Sunday lunchy.

Um, quite, um...conventional.

(ALL CHATTERING)

In the early '70s, there were
obviously still suspicions

that women couldn't work or have a
full-time job or a full-time career

and juggle a family as well.

But she knew she could and she did.

And she did it hugely successfully.

Everyone thinks that
in the perfume industry

there's lots of women
around, women perfumers,

I was one of the first female
perfumers in those times

and what was that, 30 years ago? And
it was quite intimidating, really,

and I can see that it would be very
intimidating for a fashion designer

who's then, you know, talking to
people about an industry

that she doesn't even know
so much about.

What do you think people want
out of a perfume?

It seems to me that, inevitably,

to be a woman now is a very
schizophrenic sort of situation.

Because on the one hand one has
asked the chance and in fact is very
ambitious.

At the same time one wants
flattery and prettiness.

And I think it's this...This
duality in women now is the thing.

This perverse schizophrenia...Yes.

..is...is the mood that
I would like to...to arrive at.

Yes, I would agree entirely.

But I think that...

..to satisfy that...

..you have to come up with
two types of perfume.

One which...
But it's the same woman.

She was a very strong woman...
in a man's era.

And she taught me a lot about
how to handle men in that time.

I think you have a point, but the
modern woman, it's very perverse,

she would then use the so-called
evening one in the daytime.

She would come up with some idea
or the other, and you'd think,

really?

So can we not get both these...

If, like, the guys from ICI,

or whoever made various products,
would say,

"Oh, we can't do that,
that's not possible."

Oh, no, I don't think so,
that's totally invalid.

Oh, I know you'll be able
to find a way.

I-I don't see...you know, I...

I think this is the modern woman,
she's both at the same time.

And she just sat there.

Well, yes, well, we'll work hard
at it, but, um...

..it's...very difficult,
what you ask for.

Um...

She smiled at them and didn't say
anything, and I'm thinking,

gosh, this is getting embarrassing.

OK, we'll see what we can do.

She got...she got what she wanted.

She would insist,
and of course they did.

In the end, she always got
what she wanted.

You can't change Mary's mind.

And after working with her
for a little while,

you began to realise
that she was right.

Oh, that's just dirty.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

To me, your clothes seem
seem much more classical

than they were in the '60s.
How would you describe them?

I certainly feel the mood
for very classical clothes,

but modern classics, you know,
with a...

..touch of lunacy.

I'm not deliberately so provocative

as the mood was earlier.

The thing that fascinates me about
fashion is it's all about change.

As usual, fashions anticipated
a general attitude

in economic problems
and all sorts of things,

and fashion has become, in the last
two or three years, very classical.

The aggressive look of the '60s
was natural to the time.

But right now, nobody wants that,

nobody wants the drama of wars
and so on,

and so they leap at nostalgia

and this element...
going through everything.

The latest collection,
hot off the cutting room floor,

of one of Britain's leading
fashion designers,

Mary Quant is world famous.

With creations like these,
we're not surprised.

Fashion's always about change.

And I'm designing into the future.

Yes, that does bring me
to a rougher question,

and you almost answered it
in the sense that,

is yesterday's revolutionary
today's establishment figure?

Is that you?

Well, it obviously isn't.

I think, you know, it is hard to...

..keep up and keep up,
you know, the zeitgeist changes.

The world seemed to be full of
middle-class hippies,

sort of wearing flares and shuffling
up and down the high street.

Young people suddenly found
the sound and looks

that they could relate to, and in a
way, knew the mood of their Britain.

They were a sort of
social revolution

cos they didn't seem to care about
money or fame or success.

How far would you say that,
for instance,

punk fashions were a product
of the kids themselves,

and the designers caught on to it
afterwards?

They were a product of the kids
themselves, absolutely.

It was a reaction against,
you know, manufacturing,

and the desire to be individual.

Vivienne Westwood, fuck!

You know, what an extraordinary
creature.

What an extraordinary designer.

What an extraordinarily powerful
and charismatic woman.

The King's Road really
burst into life.

I think Vivienne Westwood
and some of her cohorts

had two or three shops.

When you look at Vivienne Westwood,

there is that parallel
with Mary Quant.

Both pioneering new ground.

People like Mary Quant made it
possible for us to proceed.

They set this canvas up for us to
jump into and then we ran with it.

Oh, don't ask me about King's Road
cos I hate it.

I'm a doll maniac.

Being asked to work on a doll
and design the clothes

was absolutely irresistible to me
cos I really love them.

If I can get it done, anybody can.

Are the glasses straight,

because I've got odd ears
making me crooked?

Are they straight?Yes, they're
straight.Right.Everybody quiet.

I'm an illustrator
and I dealt with the packaging.

This resulted, with the famous logo,
which I did first of all.

She was a happy-go-lucky character.

Very into adventure.

And they all had names.

It was a policy of the firm
with everything was named.

Even the horse.
(NEIGHING)

I know it gave Cindy
a terrible fright.

Or Barbie, number two.

And then, of course,
I had the piece de resistance,

her underwear.

These were the little panties.

Did you want me to put them
on a doll? You can hardly see them.

You can see why
they never reached production.

I like to make
joyous and happy things.

But sadly,
it always ends too quickly.

The future and the fashion pages
are for the beautiful.

And the young, really.

And I suppose...it always will be.

Hm.

I was 35, and I knew that Mary was
five years older than me

and I thought, wow, that means
Mary Quant is going to be 40!

The queen of youth
is going to be 40.

So that's what I'll do, I'll do an
interview with Mary about being 40.

And to my amazement,
she said she wouldn't do it.

And I begged her. I remember
sending her a bunch of flowers.

I remember ringing her up
about ten times.

And she absolutely wouldn't do
the interview.

I had thought of myself as a friend
of hers, so I was quite upset.

And in fact, I remained slightly
upset in the back of my mind,

um, for years.

And then I was talking to somebody
who'd worked closely with her

and I told her the story,
and she said,

oh, well, what you don't know is
that Mary always lied about her age,

because she was older her husband.

So she pretended she was
five years younger than she was.

So when you wanted
to write about her turning 40,

she was actually turning 45

and she didn't want to have to
reveal that to anybody. (LAUGHING)

She continued to design garments

and that went on
right through into the '80s.

# SPANDAU BALLET: True

I think that the brutal
practicalities of being a designer

is that you do need to sustain
your creativity with money,

and so, licensing, for example,

is one way of doing that.

And if you can do that with
a certain sense of credibility,

there's nothing wrong with it.

In fact, fashion came
into the house.

We didn't want to go out,
as before.

But now you're into
so many product areas,

how do you manage to keep
the Quant image intact?

When it's to do with duvets
and carpets and roller blinds

and things that people don't
think of, in terms of Quant.

Many designers took to licensing
at this time,

and Mary Quant, perhaps by modern
standards, took it quite a long way,

with her name being plastered over
a huge variety of products.

Not only furnishings, but things
like carpets, wallpapers,

paints, and kitchenware and so on.

Today, when we look back at it
through modern marketing eyes,

we would probably argue
that it was pushed too far.

Mary, what was your experience? I
mean, here you are,

you've got a massive
business network now.

130 shops in Japan?Yes.

Clearly, there's not that great
a gulf of understanding

in terms of appreciation
of your design.

I think, from a fashion
point of view

and from a design point of view,

there's a very, very strong bond.

The way Mary looked,
really cottoned on,

the Japanese girls identified
with Mary very well

and they loved her.

All roads led, basically, to Japan
in the make-up leg of her business,

which has obviously been,
as you say, licensed to the hilt.

What have the Japanese taught you
about selling?

Oh, so much.

Um, that shopping should be fun.

The Japanese wanted to include
all sorts of other products,

fashion accessories and things.

And gradually won Mary over

from her stance of saying
nobody can do it but her.

And so that they were more and more
able to produce their own range

and present it to Mary
for her endorsement.

Japanese people are so wonderful
to work with.

I've learnt so much. I think we can
all achieve so much together.

I was finding my work difficult

because I'd go and chair a meeting
of some subsidiary company

and I began to think
that I didn't really understand

what they were saying.

So I made the decision to retire,
which...

I was very sad, but in the best
interests of everybody,

I shouldn't be there.

The next morning, I thought, well,
yesterday I employed 750 people,

now I just employ one.

When your father passed away,
he was quite young.

Yeah.Was he in his fifties?

Yeah.Um, could you tell me
if it was a sudden thing?

Er...

..well, yes, it was relatively.

Um...but, um...

..I don't think...

If you smoke 60 Gitanes a day
and like a glass of wine,

you're not going to last forever.

Well, it's just terribly sad
that he had to go so early on.

He was...just a...

..a great shaft of
colour and sunshine

which went out of everyone's lives.

They both sparked off each other.

They were...they were
such good friends,

as well as obviously lovers,

and he was her rock and it must
have been really hard for her

because she must have lost
part of herself when he died.

When Alexander was alive,
she...she stood behind him.

So Alexander was the front,

Alexander was the one that did
all that showman stuff,

and she didn't have to do that.

I think then, when he died,

she had to...
she had to rethink...

..who she was
and how she related...to people.

I think, er, losing my father
was probably, um...

..difficult for her
to keep passionate.

But she's a very proud woman
as well,

so she certainly kept going.

Because it's, you know,

it's so much part of her DNA

and is what she adores.

Years later, I mean
long after I'd retired,

Mary asked me to come over
and have lunch with her.

She had something to discuss

and she said, you'll be proud of me,

I've done the most tremendous deal
with the Japanese

that meant that it was over to them.

And that was the end of...

I think that was really the end
of Quant, as we'd known it anyway.

All good things come to an end.

You can't continue
with that energy and that vigour.

At a certain point,
you have to let go.

To actually see someone who's
so brilliant, such an innovator,

had such an effect on the world,
in the way that she did,

and to then not really
have that control

of her business side of things...

..I think it must be
quite difficult for her.

Well, that is sad,
but life is cruel sometimes.

Well, it's very competitive.

If you want your brand
to have longevity,

if you want your brand to exist
once you're gone, which I think,

you know, if somebody's spent
a lifetime working

to create what they've created,
to then,

when you aren't around any more, for
that to disappear would be very sad.

It's just the way
the cycle of fashion exists.

She handed over the reins

to somebody who could
kind of move her brand on.

Do you think her legacy
has lived on?

I mean, the fact that
Mary Quant doesn't exist now

as a major fashion brand,

um, I think in some respects
is neither here nor there.

Um, because when you look at
her history,

it resonates
and has got threads through

to the things that designers
still do today.

As a young fashion designer,

how do you see things changing
and going forward?

Maybe we need to learn
we don't need so much.

Exactly. I think...

..we lost the plot a bit.

You know, all this fast fashion,

and then we fed the machine
and we got too greedy.

What's wrong with high street,
it's just completely a rip-off

because, um, all those things

are made with really cheap labour

and they're just going to landfill
and there's no choice at all.

And I'm trying to do something
about fashion.

I'm going to try to have "buy less,
choose well and make it last."

And that idea has gone everywhere.

Fashion in the 2020s
is in a crisis moment.

But then so is
the whole consumer economy

that we all live and operate within.

I mean, we can't carry on
the way we were.

We can't carry on with...
It was just too many seasons,

too many clothes,
too many things we didn't need.

I did an issue with Taylor Swift on
the cover in an old Chanel jacket,

and the line was
"Buy better, buy less."

Mass-market production now,
what's the future for it?

Is there a future for it?
You know, really, now is the time

for us to think about going back
to the little boutique.

We don't want to be mass producing
clothes any more,

we don't want to use plastic as
much, we've got to think of new ways

to get young people being creative.

I think there's a real interest

not wearing something
that's mass produced,

but wearing something
that's individual

and wearing something
that perhaps you've made yourself.

And I think, from Quant's
very early designs, it was about...

..self-expression, she wanted to
make something that represented

her life and the life
of her friends.

And I think that is
the key message from Quant.

Mary's legacy

was the inner confidence

that she engendered in young people

to experiment, to have fun.

Exploring, finding out,
being inquisitive,

trying things out.

To add their own identity to things.

Mary really was
at the beginning of all that.

London Fashion Week, season four,
autumn-winter 2020,

Mark Fast was showing
on the final morning,

and the headlines were all about

Mark Fast miniskirts,
coloured tights.

Directly inspired, of course,
by Mary Quant,

as he fully acknowledged.

I think a lot of designers
don't recognise perhaps

they're drawing on
Mary Quant's influence.

I think she influenced everybody,

from Calvin Klein to...

..Marc Jacobs

or Anna Sui.

It's still current.

Her ideas just keep on going
forever.

I think that she needs to be
remembered by everybody

because of all the things
she's done in her life.

The winner of
the British Fashion Industry's

special hall of fame award for
lifetime achievement is Mary Quant.

Internationally, she is the most
well known British designer.

I think we still equate her name
as synonymous with the miniskirt.

Mary Quant is without a doubt

one of the most important
British designers ever.

That "Free yourself, be yourself,"

amazing quotes
that she gave the world,

and ultimately, gave everyone
enough courage

to free themselves of the shackles
of certain clothing.

Yeah, it was interesting
seeing that show.

I think I got about halfway round
before I was in tears.

And I think it took
a good three or four visits

before I could actually do the whole
thing without, um, welling up.

I've always loved her quote

that she didn't have time
to wait for women's lib.

She wasn't out to change the world,

she just wanted to do
what she wanted to do

and wasn't about to be told
that she couldn't.

Fashion's for now.
Not for...necessarily teenagers,

not for necessarily being 20 and 30
and old and dead and...

Fashion is the now.

If you're still enjoying living, and
you're still enjoying being a woman,

and being sexy and all that,
then, you know,

one wants surely to wear
the clothes of today.

There's nothing to do with...
age or anything else,

it seems to me.

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