Remembering fashion designer Mary Quant through one woman’s beloved dress

Jenny Fenwick is looking ahead to seeing her dress once more.

The Bingley, England, female acquired a Mary Quant initial — scandalously cut over the knee — in the mid-’60s when she was 17 years outdated. In 2018, she donated it to the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum for its travelling retrospective show of Quant’s do the job.

Quant was a groundbreaking fashion designer whose vibrant, alluring miniskirts epitomized Swinging London in the 1960s and affected youth culture all over the planet. She died this week at the age of 93.

Fenwick’s costume, meanwhile, has been shown all around the planet. The exhibit will be in Scotland in May perhaps, and Fenwick intends to be there.

She spoke with As It Happens host Nil Köksal about the gown and Quant’s impact on the world of trend. Below is section of their conversation.

Jenny, I know you did not know Mary Quant personally, but I consider, like a large amount of folks, you could have felt like you had a really private connection to her. So what did you imagine when you listened to that she had passed away?

I was actually far more upset than I considered I would be. It did actually provide tears to my eyes since she’d performed these a large component in my teenage several years in conditions of her operate as a designer. 

How previous were you when you acquired your 1st Mary Quant?

I was about 17…. It was Sheffield City in the north of England. And in Sheffield there was a store termed Peter Robinson’s, which experienced a department that was specially for up and coming designers.

I imagined: I just love that dress. I really like the color. I appreciate the duration.

Effectively, tell me all about it.

The length was above the knee, which was definitely rather unheard of at that time.

Effectively, your voice dropped a small bit as you stated. It can be like even now you think it is a little little bit racy.

We did actually shorten it even a lot more.

And what did it sense like the to start with time you put it on?

Very well, from what I can keep in mind, amazing! [chuckles]. Because I’d never bought nearly anything like that ahead of. It was just absolutely diverse.

Did you know about Mary Quant when you went to the shop that day?

Sure, I would go through [about her] in journals. Simply because I normally purchased Honey magazine, and there had been typically content articles about designers, and Mary Quant was one particular. And because she appeared as she did — with her bobbed hair and her dim eye makeup — she stood out, really.

[It’s] attention-grabbing to hear about her and study about her, and, you know, the variety of businesswoman she was and what she was carrying out with trend at that time.

Oh, yes. And not just the clothing. It was the make-up. Tights [were] suddenly the matter to dress in if you have bought a very small skirt. And definitely she introduced out loads of colours, styles, things that we would hardly ever had as a teenage female prior to.

What were your outfits like ahead of you acquired this magic costume?

I was often wanting to be a small bit distinctive, but my clothing were being possibly a very little little bit on the typical facet. I imply, naturally skirts beneath the knee, because at university you weren’t permitted to dress in something that was over the knee. And in all probability the dresses ended up a little bit extra like what my mum would be seeking me to dress in — very well, notably [what] my father wanted me to put on.

What did your dad say about the costume?

He wasn’t delighted. He wasn’t delighted at all. “That’s far too short. Much far too quick.” 

What did you say?

Effectively, I need to have got absent with it, for the reason that I wore the costume quite a several periods.

Now, I feel he’d learned that probably he wasn’t actually likely to get pretty significantly and telling me not to use … mainly because my mum did actually assist me shorten it.

How significantly did you shorten it?

It was possibly a few of inches or so. But the V&A said they would hold it like that. They were not going to lengthen it again to what it was originally. They preferred to preserve it short … for the reason that that was the heritage of the costume — as very well as the red wine down the front.

It seems like you and this gown, Jenny, had a good everyday living alongside one another.

Oh, we experienced entertaining. Yeah. Sure, unquestionably had enjoyable.

Observe |  Women’s manner from 1750 to 2000:

Is your type currently however influenced by Mary Quant?

Perhaps, of course. But I think, due to the fact the garments hadn’t been as they were being when she built them, she was more — what should really we say? — recognizable. She was more, perfectly, groundbreaking.

What do you think of trend these days?

Nicely, I try and preserve up with it. [laughs] I’m now in my 70s … but I you should not like to dress as nevertheless I am.

But I think it really is fantastic that, well, young adults now can express on their own with their clothing as they wish to. In all probability not as limited as we ended up.

Do you continue to dress in minis?

No!

Come on.

No! No, I never. No. No.

I like, in fact … mid-length with boots. The costume I’ve bought on now is kind of underneath the knees. But, no, I wouldn’t go previously mentioned my knees.