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An exhibition to celebrate the life and work of Mary Quant

The Glasgow show features more than 100 garments, accessories, cosmetics and photographs of the late designer's rise to fame

The first international retrospective on Mary Quant, exploring the years between 1955 and 1975, held in April 2019, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The first international retrospective on Mary Quant, exploring the years between 1955 and 1975, held in April 2019, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. (AFP)

A retrospective opened in Scotland on 20 May of the late British fashion designer and miniskirt pioneer Mary Quant, documenting her work over the years.

The exhibition at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow features more than 100 garments, accessories, cosmetics and photographs of the designer's rise to fame, states an AFP report. Quant, known for creating colourful, sexy miniskirts, died last month at the age of 93.

The exhibition, "Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary", is on till 22 October.

Also read: Mary Quant, the designer who defined 60s fashion, dies at 93

Curator Rebecca Quinton said as well as exploring the miniskirt and hotpants that Quant popularised, the show, the final stop on a world tour, would also focus on her innovative use of materials, reports the AFP report.

"Everybody always associated her with the mini dress, she was one of the leading designers in the 1960s that was raising the hem line," she told AFP. "But this is at the beginning of nylon, lycra, PVC coming in. She also made use of all the new technologies and materials to do new things."

In Glasgow, her former colleague Heather Tilbury said the diminutive designer with the trademark bob haircut would be remembered for bringing fun into women's fashion after World War II, said the AFP report.

"She introduced such a revolutionary attitude to clothes with garments that the young could run, jump, leap onto a bus and go dancing in," she said. "They didn't have to dress like their mothers anymore, which of course they had to do in the days of post war austerity."

Tilbury, who worked with Quant for 14 years, said she wanted the people she was dressing to have the confidence and ability to do what they wanted to achieve.

"She always had this steely determination, inner strength that said, if you want something enough, you can do it," she added.

"She said, if you believe in it enough, work hard enough, you'll find a way."

Also read: Move over the micro mini. It's the season of midi skirt

 

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