Did you ever buy a Mary Quant dress?

Great memories of Quant. I had a black PVC mac and one of her grey check dress designs - saw both in the Quant exhibition. My daughters, who went with me, were well impressed!

Paperbackwriter , of course it was Bus Stop , thank you , I’d forgotten the name ! I too was a regular in there !

I was a Biba girl, and yes I remember Bus Stop also Irvine Sellars still got a jacket from them alas the Biba dresses long gone but the photos are fun.

Joelise the boutique on Kensington Church St, just a few doors down from Biba, was Bus Stop. I loved it and bought quite a lot from there. I have a Bus Stop dress in my wardrobe right now, bought from a local junk shop a couple of years ago. Sadly it's a size 8 which I no longer am.

No but I had a couple of Ossie Clark dresses. Wish I’d kept them. I had Mary Quant make up though. The Paintbox that contained eye-shadows blushers and lipsticks.

I love Boyes. Such bargains.

Oh I bet you all looked beautiful in them, copies and all. I was too young in the sixties, but loved the clothes. Interesting how many of us made our own clothes back then. In the 70s I used to buy fabric from Boyes and could make a blouse for 50p. I remember in the 80s my full ensemble, skirt, blouse, jacket (with shoulder pads of course) cost less than a fiver. We were all so young and gorgeous, just didn’t realise it at the time

No, I could not afford them. One year at uni I had a holiday job as a waitress and I went to Manchester, to Kendal Milne with the intention of splurging on an MQ dress. Then I saw the price tag 10 1/2 guineas. I didn't buy it.

Last year the V&A had a wonderful Christian Dior Exhibition and also a Mary Quant one. DD and I did both on the same day. The thing I noticed was at actually Dior had much more influence on the style of clothes we wore in the 1960s than MQ did. You could only wear her up and down shifts if you had a figure like Twiggy, and how many of us had that. The looser slightly shaped and A line Dior dresses and shifts suited most of us much more.

DD said that MQ was the first designer to sell the whole image. She had her name on clothes, shoes, underwear, make-up. Even household goods and I suspect she made more money from those than she did from her clothes.

No way could I have afforded Mary Quant's clothes! But I was quite happy with C&A's! Fab late 60's fashion minidresses and boots!

We used to make our own Mary Quant dresses using the patterns. Much cheaper. We went to the exhibition a few weeks ago. There was a lot of Jersey material in the earlier 1950s clothes in dingy colours. The clothes from about 1964 were the best, short and bright.

(There were few places to sit as the exhibition was full of oldies who needed a rest.)

no, did not have the money but me and my friends were all a dab hand at sewing and we made our own copycats. Someone even crocheted a white mini dress, which looked fabulous with high boots

No, I never could afford one and my mother would have had a fit if I had asked for one.

I did by Mary Quant make-up.

This is a really fun thread. I was a bit young for MQ but can remember starting my first job at 18 in the mid-1970s and my mum letting me keep my first month’s wages to buy clothes suitable for working in an office. She was horrified when I returned when I blew the lot on a midi corduroy coat which was all the rage then!

Can someone tell me when the TV programmed aired? As I would love to watch it on catch-up.

Yes a jumpsuit... here I am wearing it in France,summer of 1968

Looking at old photos now, I think “ if only you had known...”

Yes I feel like that Dora. If only I’d had the confidence back then. But perhaps if we had known, we wouldn’t have been the same people?
I watched a programme about Cilla Black the other day & there was an interview with her in 1964 when she was 21. She seemed almost gauche and very softly spoken & although her Liverpool accent was there, it wasn’t so harsh as it was when she was older.

My style heroine was Jacqueline Kennedy. I grew out my layers and had a bob just like hers, with a side parting and no fringe.

Jang , snap, I was in HK. My friends and I used to go into Lane Crawford and then sketch the dresses and take them to the tailor in Kowloon City.
I had white boots with cut outs made too.

Loved the 60's MQ style dresses, shorter the better, white boots and hot pants. Couldn't afford a MQ dress but I did buy her Pie in the Sky nail polish. Loved the colour and tried to buy cheaper look a likes but they were never the same!

I had a yellow and white block colour C&A MQ-type mini dress with the same colour 'target' brooch - absolutely loved it. DM hated it and said it wasn't decent, but she did buy it for me. Amazing clothes in the sixties, I still have one or two examples for nostalgia but they'll never fit me again! I don't have pics of any of them - no selfie obsession then.

I owned some Mary Quant crayons! They came in a flat yellow, tin box. The colors were perfect for those iconic 'smoky'eyes that were so stylish in the 60s.

Made all my own clothes. I was 6' tall and skinny so needs must.

Copied a lot of the styles of 1960s.

Still 6' tall and wish I was still skinnyl

I NEVER had the money for a Mary Quant dress - managed to buy one of her eye-shadows once .

I'm another who occasionally managed to get something at C&A, though I began to make my own clothes around the age of 18.

Nope could never afford her clothes though I loved them
Used to shop at C&A or market stalls in Roman road etc. Did a lot of Styles like Mary. I had a black and white op art dress in the 60s from a shop in Lewisham.

Or even 'Courreges'!

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'.

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?)