Mary Quant is one of Britain’s most well-known and influential designers. 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 designing her own clothes which were manufactured and sold successfully. In 1963 she set up the Ginger Group label. Through the Ginger Group she sold pieces at a lower price point than at Bazaar, making her designs available to a wider market. In 1964 she went into business with the Nylon Hosiery Company to create a very successful line of socks, stockings and tights and in 1965 started a collaboration with Alligator Rainwear Ltd. She later expanded into cosmetics and homeware, creating one of the first lifestyle brands.

Along with the mini-skirt, colourful, comfortable tights and socks are perhaps Quant’s most significant contribution to fashion. Until the late 1950s, women were limited to suspender belts and stockings in ‘nude’ colours. Warm pantyhose, the forerunners to tights, were an option in winter, but most women preferred stockings. Quant persuaded the Nylon Hosiery Company, run by the Curry family, first generation immigrants from India, to manufacture her ideas for stockings and tights. Once their partnership with Mary Quant was established in about 1964, the Curry brothers developed a technique of making long stockings which were joined together at the top, and they were produced as well as stockings in specially dyed bright colours to contrast and co-ordinate with Mary Quant separates. The range expanded with new colours and patterned knits and from 1966 the effervescent ‘Hi-ball’ glitter stockings in silver, gold, green blue and red. The distinctive Mary Quant packaging, initially in dark green or brown, but later in black, with the daisy logo, continued the consistent brand identity, helping the products to stand out amongst competitors such as Dior and Pretty Polly. The Mary Quant tights were made under licence into the 1980s and proved to be a most enduring product line. Stockings, tights and socks in every length and many colour and pattern combinations featured in magazines and were available to buy on high streets and in department stores. These products were an affordable way of wearing Mary Quant style and were sold worldwide.
The Mary Quant tan tights and packaging are part of a larger ensemble of tights and stockings acquired to complete the V&A collection.