FROCK star
SADIE FROST celebrates British fashion icon Mary Quant
A mainstay of the1960s UK fashion scene, Mary Quant is credited with bringing the miniskirt into the mainstream, and raising hemlines and eyebrows at the same time in Swinging London.
The life, career and legacy of Quant, now aged 92, are celebrated in a new feature-length documentary directed by actor Sadie Frost, and featuring interviews with fashion luminaries Kate Moss, Dame Zandra Rhodes and Dame Vivienne Westwood.
Quant rose to prominence at a time when the established order was being shaken up by the arrival of the contraceptive pill, and the blossoming of youth culture, music and fashion – and she was a champion of clothes that got you noticed as well as being practical.
Frost says she remembers the distinctive Quant look – tights, low-heeled shoes and short skirts – from her childhood.
‘When I was about15, I started wearing all the Mary Quant stripy tights, and I cut my hair into a bob, so I must have been modelling myself on her,’ she says.
As well as experts on fashion, Frost interviews leading lights from other fields to reflect how interconnected they all were in the 60s, and dramatises moments from her subject’s life.
DYNAMIC
‘Mary was in some ways a machine in the world of fashion, doing all these collections,’ says Frost, best known for her role in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. ‘But she was also a tender mother.’ With experience of her own in the fashion industry, Frost knows just how hard it can be, and she admires how the camera-shy Quant, who does not feature in the film, went about her business in an understated way.
‘What’s so interesting is that Mary’s so softly spoken and so unreactive,’ she says of Quant. ‘When she wanted to get her own way, she didn’t scream and shout. She just calmly, quietly said, “No.” I think we can all learn from her.’