Did you ever buy a Mary Quant dress?

Fascinating programme - I didn't buy one, but looked at a lot in Chelsea shop windows - I was a poor student at the time.
Bought my one and only fur coat from Oxfam in Kensington.

I didn't have the cash back then and had to save for the essentials. However, my mother taught me how to sew from quite a young age, (simple garments by hand at first). When I was allowed to use the machine I was making my own versions of all the styles even cute cloche hats to match the skirts I made!

I got married in a cream lace MQ-style mini-dress with white MQ boots and bonnet adorned with daisies! Does anyone remember these? I'd add a picture if I knew how to do it!

I could never afford to buy a Mary Quant dress but I did have a Mary Quant pattern for a mini dress with a little white Peter Pan collar. I made it up and thought it looked great. I still have a knitting pattern for a Mary Quant ribbed top with a polo neck.

My friend wore one like this. We thought she was so cool and trendy. I'd forgotten about a bonnet. Thanks Ruby41

I always went in the Mary Quant boutique in Kensington High Street, which was my favourite shopping place when I was nothing more than a teenager. There were so many trendy boutiques that sold fantastic clothes at much more reasonable cost along Kensington I loved the Indoor Kensington market it was fantastic there was a proper shoe stall and the man made up leather boots and shoes to your own design there was always someone from one of the pop bands in there to get some boots made up. Those were the days.

On of my "very short' dresses in the late 60's was almost identical to the shortest dress to the left of the 'Ginger' dress in the V & A programme...only mine had a 'Peter Pan' collar and a zip from the collar almost to the hem! It may even have been Mary Quant as my mum got a discount at the department store where she worked. I definitely had a 'Ginger' too. I had a date with a gorgeous French chap and mum took me to a boutique and spent an undisclosed amount on a very short dress with long sleeves covered in flowers and bees. I'm not sure why she did that as her own shop was great.. The date was a disaster as I was unable to eat the fondue Jean- Marie's friends had made specially. I can normally eat anything but the taste made me gag...! He lectured me on my bad manners and I never saw him again... We'd better make the most of these wonderful V & A programmes as the Beeb's days are numbered it seems...

I couldn't afford a Mary Quant dress, but I did buy a Mary Quant lipstick.
I had a much coveted Saturday job in the boutique of the local Co-Op department store and they sold Mary Quant make up. I thought I had died and gone to heaven, being able to try out all those testers.

My friend had a Mary Quant mini car - white, with grey and black striped seats and a daisy on the steering wheel. So trendy - I would have loved one!

I didn't own a Mary Quant dress,but my mum made me a copy of a black and white houndstooth mini dress which I loved to bits,wore it everywhere, along with a black 60s cap ?

We lived in London through most of the 60s and I can remember passing the shop Bazaar in Kings Road which was pointed out as the jumping off board for MQ.

My big sister was a MQ type, small, slim and dark and she worked for Joseph Ettedgui, who at that time was a hairdresser in the Kings Road. He soon left to open his own fashion boutique and Fashion label.

It seemed such a glamorous world to me whose own Saturday job was in the invoice dept of Peter Jones.

When my first DC was a baby I bought him an outfit in Biba. What a trendy baby he was.

A few years ago, a group of us in our town put on an exhibition called memorable clothes. People brought along things they had kept and we hung them up or displayed them around the art centre. We carefully laid on a table an 1860's wedding dress handed down from an ancestor.
Descriptions and photos were added.

It was very interesting to see all the clothes, hats, shoes and brownie outfits and to read the stories of why they had been preserved..
We were even loaned a deerskin jacket presented to someone's grandfather by native Canadians. This man was the founder of the Grand Trunk Railroad and had perished in the Titanic.

I gave myself the lovely job of making a soundtrack to play during opening times. All the tracks were songs mentioning clothes. Top Hat, Lady in Red, Venus in Blue Jeans, Blue suede shoes, These boots are made for walking were a few.

I was just remembering a summer white with dark blue edging hot pants and dress that went over but open. White plastic boots. Not a single pic and now I don’t want to be in pics - we’ll certainly not without a large pair of sun glasses. Fashion was such fun wasn’t it????? ??

I have a Biba cape from the 60's ( not worn since those memorable days ) & recently told my ( rather disinterested) daughter it might be worth something one day. On retrieving it from the back of a wardrobe I discovered that I'd cut the label off - still in such good condition but presumably worthless. ? A lot of memories came flooding back.

I didn't buy anything but as a teenager visited the London shop which I remember thinking was really cool. Coat stands, hats and feather boas,I'd never been in a shop like it!

I made two MQ type shift dresses in heavy striped cotton in the 1960s; somehow they survived to be worn by DD in the early 1980s; and were worn last summer by DGD aged 17! Good quality fabric survives despite indifferent dress making skills.

I stopped making clothes when DD, aged 3, turned up her nose at the dress I had made her saying that it looked home made. Stuck to dolls’ clothes after that.

was living in Singapore around that time and could take a picture in a magazine into a dressmaker and hey presto with in hours I had a copy made... got some fabulous dresses, cheap as chips too!

I wasn't really a fan ofQuant but loved Biba, I was much more of a hippy so Biba's floaty stuff was more me. Not that I could afford it, I bought cheaper copies and also Indian cheesecloth stuff. Loved all that.

I saw the V& A programme too, one of those things the BBC does really well.

I still have a full length dress from Biba that I bought in 1967. I loved that shop!

I had a Mary Quant dress but it was a Ginger Group one, so not one of the most expensive. There were lots of her clothes in the Museum of Fashion recently in an exhibition that showed up the connection between her and Terence Conran - he did the decor for her Kings Road shop. She had amazing connections - no starting with a market stall for her!

But really I was a Biba girl. The clothes were really quite cheap and I have one of their mail order catalogues (bought it on eBay a few years ago). Pretty much all my wardrobe was Biba as their size 8 was perfect for my tiny skinny body in those days. Most standard clothes from elsewhere were a bit big so it was either Biba or make my own, which I also did. (I am no longer a Biba size 8, needless to say..)

I had cheap C&A copies of MQ dresses, including a turquoise wool sleeveless dollyrocker dress with a Peter Pan collar, and a pair of white leather boots with cutouts round the top, like the Cacharel ones I had seen in the Daily Express. I was also an early adopter of the MQ bob. I had my hair cut at a local hairdresser, from a beehive ( which I never managed properly) to a short black bob with a fringe. I was very pleased with it, until I heard two of the juniors giggling and saying I looked like a boy. I didn’t go out for a week. I was a strange mix of wanting to wear avant garde fashion, and being terribly self-conscious. Looking at old photos now, I think “ if only you had known...”

Not Cacharel, Courreges:

I just loved Mary Quant, I never had the money to buy her stuff as I was doing a hairdressing apprenticeship only earning £3 7 shillings and 6 pence a week. So it had to be C&A I’m afraid. A few years ago I did an Art course and really enjoyed doing a sixties theme with lots of Mary Quant design, I had lots of fun.

Never had a Mary Quant dress but did pick up an Ossie Clarke in a sale. I loved it so much. Can remember every detail about it.

Oh loved those boots but never got them. The Courreges trousers with front seams and cut out so they fitted over boots were great as well. I made some (trousers! how did I manage that?)

Not Mary Quant but I remember buying at the very first Biba shop and of course later in Kensington Church Street.

My husband has 'fond' memories of the latter as, lounging on the sofas, he sat and watched a procession of girls parade around in not very much! I hated the communal changing room, though!

I still have quite a few Biba and Bus Stop originals.

I had the Courage boots too but.... wearing them on Bonfire Night on Hampstead Heath was not a good idea as a firework shot down between my slim (as was...) ankle and the boot and melted my tights. I was very lucky not to be burnt! Think that is called 'suffering for fashion'.