Mary Quant’s first boutique, Bazaar, opened in London's King's Road in 1955, launching a successful fashion career. Her youthful easy-to-wear clothing became so popular that in 1963, she launched a lower-priced ready-to-wear range called 'Ginger Group'. She also entered into licensing agreements with manufacturers to produce hosiery, underwear, cosmetics and accessories bearing her name. Almost anyone, whatever their income, could spare the money to buy a pair of 'Mary Quant' stockings or a lipstick. This enabled girls who could not otherwise afford her clothing to feel in touch with fashion, and made Mary Quant a household name.

By 1970, Mary Quant and her business partners closed the Bazaar boutiques to focus on the licencing business, although Quant continued to design good quality ready-to-wear fashion retailed in department stores and independent boutiques under her own name. This outfit comes from the wardrobe of Pamela Howard Mace (1932-2008), who had a long career in fashion, after starting work in London for the magazine Home Notes, at the age of sixteen. She moved to South Africa for a while, but returned to London in 1962, where she worked for Mary Quant as her PA, becoming design director in 1968 until the late 1970s. The surviving clothes from her time at Mary Quant show the evolution of the Quant style, from minimal mod fashion in the 1960s, through to the more vintage-inspired designs and flamboyant, sometimes synthetic textiles of the mid-1970s. This ensemble demonstrates the designer's long-lasting affinity with textiles produced by the long-established London firm, Liberty.