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Dress

1966 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This dress is made from purple jersey and has contrasting tan cuffs, epaulettes, collar and tie. It epitomises Mary Quant’s approach to fashion for women, challenging the conventions of its time, by introducing comfort, colour and humour, as typified by its length, ease of fit, quirky collar, tie and epaulettes. It was designed by Mary Quant for her Ginger Group label in England in 1966.

Mary Quant was one of the most important British fashion designer of the 1960s. Along with her husband, Alexander Plunket Greene and business partner Archie McNair, she opened her first boutique, Bazaar, on the King’s Road in 1955. She originally stocked clothes from wholesalers but soon became frustrated with the options available and began making her own designs for clothes that were manufactured and sold successfully. In 1963 Quant set up the Ginger Group label, through which she sold pieces at a lower price point that at Bazaar.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Wool jersey
Brief description
Dress, purple jersey with contrast tan coloured tie and epaulettes, designed by Mary Quant for Ginger Group, England, 1966
Physical description
This dress is made from purple jersey and has contrasting tan cuffs, epaulettes, collar and tie.
Marks and inscriptions
  • Label "Mary Quant's Ginger Group (R) Made in England'
  • Label "9"
    Translation
    Refers to sizing
  • Label "We recommend that this garment should be dry cleaned"
Gallery label
(30/03/2020)
[Mary Quant exhibition, 2019]

DRESS WITH EPAULETTES AND TIE
1966

With striped tie and epaulettes, this simple shift dress shows Quant using fashion to play with masculine and military conventions at a time when the Vietnam War was being fought. Quant wore a dress of this style, as did her cosmetics consultants in shops like Selfridges, until the ties proved impractical, getting in the way of make-up demonstrations.

Bonded wool jersey
Labelled ‘Mary Quant’s Ginger Group’
Made at the Steinberg factory, Pontypridd, Wales (probably)
V&A: T.28-2018
Object history
This dress is from Mary Quant's Ginger Group label. Ginger Group opened in 1963.
Summary
This dress is made from purple jersey and has contrasting tan cuffs, epaulettes, collar and tie. It epitomises Mary Quant’s approach to fashion for women, challenging the conventions of its time, by introducing comfort, colour and humour, as typified by its length, ease of fit, quirky collar, tie and epaulettes. It was designed by Mary Quant for her Ginger Group label in England in 1966.

Mary Quant was one of the most important British fashion designer of the 1960s. Along with her husband, Alexander Plunket Greene and business partner Archie McNair, she opened her first boutique, Bazaar, on the King’s Road in 1955. She originally stocked clothes from wholesalers but soon became frustrated with the options available and began making her own designs for clothes that were manufactured and sold successfully. In 1963 Quant set up the Ginger Group label, through which she sold pieces at a lower price point that at Bazaar.

Bibliographic reference
Featured in a Gunnar Larsen photograph, modelled by Kellie Wilson surrounded by Chelsea Pensioners, 1966 © Gunnar Larsen Image courtesy Mary Quant Archive / Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Collection
Accession number
T.28-2018

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Record createdApril 12, 2018
Record URL
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