Me, My Mini and Mary Quant

Age is just a number, as well as the length of your hemline. Don’t ditch your mini-skirt just because you are in your 50s. From school discos to first dates, it has been our faithful friend for life’s biggest moments and it still keeps rocking on the streets and on the spring/summer 2019 runways.

Wearing that little piece of cloth after a certain age, might seem a bit controversial but there is no need to dull down your style and look dowdy just because you’re getting older. Celebrities such as Victoria Beckham, Kylie Minogue, Elle Macpherson, Yasmin Le Bon, Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and even the Première Dame Brigitte Macron are happy to bare a lot of leg in a mini-skirt even in their 40s and beyond.

If you still love to experiment with fashion, there are no set rules except wearing what makes you feel good. Many women today are as fit as their granddaughters; they take care of their bodies, they’re confident, they’re successful, and they can buy and wear whatever they want. Do your legs still look cool? Show them off or wear a pair of thighs if you want to feel a bit more confident. Just remember to pair your mini with a blouse or a simple t-shirt to avoid that aggressive look.

For more inspirations, don’t miss the V&A Museum “Mary Quant” exhibition (6th April 2019 – 20th February 2020) in London. The first international retrospective of the revolutionary designer in nearly 50 years, it will be a celebration of the swinging sixties designer often credited with instigating the “youthquake” movement and more notably, popularising the decade-defining mini skirt.

Receiving unprecedented access to Dame Mary Quant’s Archive, as well as drawing on the V&A’s extensive fashion holdings, which include the largest public collection of Quant garments in the world, the show will bring together over 120 garments as well as accessories, cosmetics, sketches and photographs – the majority of which have never been on display before.

Mary Quant transformed the fashion system, overturning the dominance of luxury couture from Paris – said Jenny Lister, co-curator of Mary Quant at the V&A-. She dressed the liberated woman, freed from rules and regulations, and from dressing like their mothers. This long-overdue exhibition will show how Mary Quant’s brand connected with her customers, how she made designer fashion affordable for working women, and how her youthful, revolutionary clothes, inspired by London’s creative scene, made British street style the global influence it remains today.

Following a call-out to the public to track down rare Quant garments from wardrobes around the country, 35 objects from 30 individuals were selected and are displayed alongside personal stories from the owners and 50 photographs of the women wearing their beloved Quant clothes. These objects include rare examples such as a very early and unlabelled blouse, a hat sold at Bazaar – Quant’s experimental shop on Chelsea’s King’s Road – and colourful PVC raincoats.

Today, the miniskirt is such a foundational part of most women’s wardrobes that it feels like an almost entirely neutral piece. But when Quant began selling short skirts in the early Sixties, she sparked outrage. Opinions still differ on who invented it, but in London, the iconic designer was the driving force behind this Sixties trend. With her Vidal Sassoon haircut, Quant’s uniform – short skirt, flat shoes and tights – she epitomised a generation.