V&A in plea for fashion designer’s ‘lost’ items

The Victoria & Albert Museum has announced a new exhibition on designer Mary Quant and is asking the public to contribute her experimental PVC garments and other “lost designs”.

After enjoying huge success with its Alexander Mcqueen show, the V&A will hold the first international retrospective on the designer, who “freed women from dressing like their mothers”, invented hot pants and popularised the miniskirt, in nearly 50 years.

Opening next year, it will feature more than 200 objects never displayed in public before.

The V&A is searching for missing items, including one-off designs sold between 1955 and 1960 in her Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Bond Street Bazaar boutiques, famed for their unusual window displays and club-like atmosphere.

They are looking for Dame Mary’s early experimental garments in PVC, particularly from her Wet 1963 collection.

Curator Jenny Lister said: “Mary Quant liberated fashion in the late 1950s and early 60s.

“This long overdue exhibition will show how Mary made high fashion affordable for working women.”

The V&A wants to hear from women who wore Dame Mary’s radical designs and is asking people “to check attics, cupboards, as well as family photo albums” for missing styles from 1964 and 1965 with Peter Pan collars, as well as knitwear, swimwear and accessories and garments made using her Butterick patterns.

The show will focus on 1955 to 1975, when the designer revolutionised the High Street with hot pants, miniskirts and trousers for women, as well as accessories, tights and make-up.

Dame Mary said it was a “huge honour to be recognised” at the V&A.

“We didn’t necessarily realise that what we were creating was pioneering, we were too busy relishing all the opportunities and embracing the results,” she said.

“Friends have been extremely generous in loaning, and in many cases, donating garments and accessories to the V&A which they have lovingly cherished for many years, so it will be fascinating to see what else will emerge.”

The V&A is urging people to get in touch by email at maryquant@vam.ac.uk and to share their pictures and memories on social media using the hashtag #Wewantquant.