Mary Quant
Mary Quant
Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene, DBE, FCSD, RDIis a Welsh fashion designer and British fashion icon...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionFashion Designer
Date of Birth11 February 1934
art schools
Britain has always had more art schools per capita than any other country.
teachers
As the daughter of two teachers with first-class degrees, I'd always seen myself as a duffer by comparison.
aunt catch cook holidays nearly spend
As a child, I used to spend nearly all my summer holidays with my aunt in Wales, and we used to catch mackerel in a boat and then cook them on board.
developed loved
I've always loved painting and drawing. I wish I'd developed it more and exhibited.
absolutely adore amazing asleep beautiful falling few field gentle land love talk ten
I absolutely adore cows. They're the most fascinating, gentle and beautiful animals. Their eyes are so amazing. I have ten that live on the land around my house. I love to talk to them. There are few things better than falling asleep in a field and being woken up by an inquisitive cow.
absolutely asked automatic buy car porsche roaring salesman smashing stood
I remember one day, when things were going frightfully well, I went to buy myself a really smashing car. I asked them to show me a Porsche with an automatic gearbox, and the salesman called over all the other salesmen, and they stood around absolutely roaring with laughter.
jean left men models walk walking
Jean Shrimpton was the most beautiful of all the models I have known. To walk down the King's Road, Chelsea, with Shrimpton was like walking through the rye. Strong men just keeled over right and left as she strode up the street.
people
People only see permissiveness in the sense of having more.
ended gardens hoping life people returned revert ten war
Let me give you an idea of Fifties Britain. The war had ended ten years before, and most people had returned to their gardens and allotments hoping life would revert to how it was before the hostilities.
caused people
The miniskirt caused an extraordinarily powerful reaction. There were the people who hated it.
changing finished
I long for my garden to be complete. Working in it is one of my joys, but it will never be finished because it's forever changing with the seasons.
market people public survey
In America, they never make anything without first having a market survey to ask the public what they want. People only ask for things they already know about, so you don't get anything new that way. That's why American fashion is stuck.
half simply
In the first half of the 20th century, fashion was simply not a very English thing to do.
caused designed havoc travelled
I designed the miniskirt that caused so much havoc in the Sixties - the miniskirt that was such fun but has travelled well to today.