Mary Quant at the V & A

Sunday October 13 continued with rain, although it was quite mild at 16C.  Luckily, it finally cleared in the late afternoon.  We started our day with a coffee at Allpress on Redchurch Street, just a few minutes away.  We then stopped at Burro e Salvia a few doors away to pick up some homemade pasta and a tomato sauce for a dinner at the flat.  We've been eating out more on this trip than usual and wanted a break from restaurant food, though we didn't want to do a lot of cooking.

Outside of Burro e Salvia

Lovely homemade pasta

Just opening up-- there is a restaurant in the back that also looked lovely.  Our Airbnb hosts  had good things to say about their pasta.

We passed this apt quote from Longfellow in the Le Labo store window: "For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain."

We decided to walk down part of Brick Lane.  We had an urge for a salt beef beigel for an early lunch bite.  Beigel Bake is open 24 hours and is always buzzy.  Their beigels (that's how they spell it) are delicious- very light and soft.

Waiting in line to get our salt beef beigel

Making beigels in the back

The outside of Beigel Bake

Allan in the rain with our salt beef beigel-- so good

We had just read an article in CBC on-line news about graffiti (especially anti-Brexit) in Brick Lane.

We saw some great graffiti in our walk down the street.  Lots of BoJo as a clown.

Loved this one

Dots too

Syrial Killer Assad, Trump and Thatcher on one wall!

Scrap Brexit skulls

Yep...

The Brick Lane market was also in full swing and the street was packed.  Lots of food stalls and vintage wear.

One of many baked goods stalls

Walking down a crowded Sunday Brick Lane market day

We walked by Hanbury Hall, which had a detailed plaque outlining the building's history.  It was built in 1719 as a French Huguenot Church.  It was used by La Patente Church from 1740 onwards.  John Wesley preached there.  In 1787, it became a German Lutheran Church.  Used by the Baptists, then the United Free Methodists.  Charles Dickens gave public readings here. In 1887, Christ Church bought the building as its Church Hall.  In 1888, meetings for the matchstick girls strike were held at the church, which helped establish the British Trade Unions.

Hanbury Hall- lots of history

We wandered a bit more and then took the tube to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  It took a bit longer to get there as one of the stations where we could transfer lines was closed for the weekend and one of the lines that intersected with the South Kensington stop for the museum was also closed.  However, we were able to take alternate routes.

We went to see the wonderful Mary Quant exhibit.  She really brought British fashion to the forefront during the "Swinging Sixties".  She was a leader in mass production, pioneer of the mini skirt and hot pants who later got into cosmetics, hosiery and other accessories.  She was a fashion icon herself, with an early haircut by Vidal Sassoon.  Dame Mary Quant was born in 1930 in London, the daughter of Welsh teachers.  She met her future husband and business partner Alexander Plunket Greene in 1953 when they were both students at Goldsmiths' College of Art in southeast London.  They were married from 1957 until his death in 1990.  They had one son born in 1970.

Poster for the exhibit

At the entrance to the exhibit was a photo of Quant with her husband and other business partner Archie McNair at Buckingham Palace in 1966 when she received her OBE, for her outstanding contribution to the fashion industry.   The dress she wore was also on display.

The OBE dress

In November 1955, Quant and Plunket Greene teamed up with a photographer and former solicitor, Archie McNair, to open Quant's first shop on King's Road in Chelsea, London called "Bazaar".  In 1957, they opened the second branch of Bazaar, which was designed by Terence Conran.  She was one of only two London-based high-end designers offering youthful clothes for young people.  Quant later said,"It was the girls on the King's Road during the 1960s who invented the mini.  I was making easy, youthful, simple clothes, in which you could move, in which you could run and jump and we would make them the length the customer wanted.  I wore them very short and the customers would say, "Shorter, shorter." She gave the miniskirt its name, after her favourite make of car, the Mini.

The exhibit featured her clothes, photos of Quant, models wearing her clothes and a number of short videos.  She became a fashion icon by the late 1960s.  Her heyday in fashion was from 1955-1975.  Throughout the 1970s and 1980s she concentrated on household goods and makeup rather than just her clothing lines.  In 2000, she resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd, her cosmetics company, after a Japanese buy-out.

In June 2018, the curators of the exhibit launched a national call-out using the hashtag "WeWantQuant appealing to folks to lend or donate any Quant items they might have in their wardrobes.  They had an amazing response and included 35 pieces of clothing from the public.  Those items are displayed alongside photographs and personal testimonies of the women who wore them.

Quant broke boundaries for the everyday woman, allowing them to be young and liberated.  The testimonies show the power of Quant as a revolutionary designer.

Spotted pyjamas - a 1973 replica of her 1956 design 

Mary Quant outside Knightsbridge Bazaar 1960

Fitted jacket and skirt- sample acquired by Lydia Sharman who designed the shopfront display system for the original Bazaar in 1957.  It cost her over 32 guineas in 1962 (about £715 today)

In 1963, she launched the Ginger Group, an accessible diffusion line that was soon stocked by US department store JC Penney.  The following year, she began to sell paper patterns for her designs.

Wonderful clothes from one of the Ginger Group collection

Sailor Dress 1961-62

Love the lobster with the clothes

Menswear looks

Checks and Stripes Dress 1963

Her trademark Daisy

From the "Wet Collection" launched in 1963

Marketing for the Ginger Group

There was a display of the "Columbine" dress from 1964.  Pauline O'Shea, one of lenders to the exhibit, bought this dress as a special treat just after her 21st birthday.  She was a headmaster's secretary at a boys' preparatory school in North Devon.  It was an expensive purchase at 19 guineas (about  £418 today).  She wore it to parties and it was later worn by her daughter.

"Columbine" dress lent by Pauline O'Shea

Grace Coddington modelling "Columbine" 1964

Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon 1964

Mary Quant and Alexander Plunket Greene on Park Avenue, NY 1960

Tartan Two-Piece 1960 (one was worn by Quant during her first visit to NYC)

Zipped Pinafore 1965

At the top of the second floor were 5 iconic mini dresses with photos of models wearing them behind the mannequins.  By 1966, the term "miniskirt" is widely used.

Jersey minidresses 1967

Mary Quant makeup

Fabulous shoes designed by Mary Quant

Mary Quant hosiery--her colours and patterns were revolutionary for the 1960s

It was a great exhibit.  Brought back memories of wearing mini-skirts during the 1960s and wearing a fabulous mini-dress that I got at Marilyn Brooks' Unicorn boutique in Toronto for my sweet sixteen party.

Fabulous Chihuly glass in the V&A lobby

We stopped for a coffee/tea and treat at L'Opera of Brompton, a café and deli.

At L'Opera of Brompton

We also stopped for a pastel de nata at a Portuguese bakery

We then headed back to the flat.   Leaving the Old Street tube stop, we spotted these very futuristic apartment buildings.

Dusk at Old Street tube station-cool apartments in the 'hood

We are about a 10 minute walk from the tube station, staying on a very quiet street in Shoreditch.

We had a lovely pasta dinner.  The hosts came in while we were eating and offered us a glass of wine, which was very nice.  Alberto and Yao are very interesting- one is an artist and the other an architect.  They have been very helpful with directions and suggestions for restaurants and galleries.  A relaxing end to a busy day.