We are what we wear, the saying goes…..What’s your favourite outfit – the designer dress or do you feel your best in jeans and an oversized sweater. What we wear and how we look can determine how we feel and what we are saying to the outside world. It’s our wellbeing in the wardrobe.
We all have a favourite colour. On a grey day, wearing a bright cheery colour can brighten our attitude, so dress in yellow to stand in for the buried sunshine or slip into purple to feel calm and relaxed.
Mary Quant introduced well-being in the wardrobe, casting corsets to history, propelling hemlines to heights never seen with thigh-high skirts and hot pants, coloured tights, short shift dresses, skinny-ribbed sweater and PVC raincoats. She added health to fashion with her versions of wellbeing in the wardrobe, coating it with fun, freedom and individuality. Her designs reflected the change in female behaviour – dance moves less restrictive with the shorter skirts, short haircuts easier to manage, and bold make-up shouted an external expression.
This was the philosophy behind Mary Quant’s revolutionary designs back in the Swinging Sixties when the Mini ruled the road, The Beatles and The Monkees sang out and Twiggy modelled her look.
Quintessentially British, she created the London look and took it to Hollywood and countries in between.Her unstructured designs matched the carefree attitude and movement to youthful fashion inspired by the subcultures of Chelsea. Mary Quant also added a dose of tonic with vitamin pills (A & D), sold in classic pill boxes to add to the energy and zest of this external strong, healthy image.
Fun in fashion was a trademark blended with her cosmetics.”Jeepers Peepers’ was the name given to powder eyeshadows, “Cheeky” to a liquid ‘non-greasy blush-rouge. She introduced tear-proof products such as “Cry-Baby Mascara”, essential for her focus on coquettish eyelashes. Colours were bold with “Cherry Pop” lipsticks and “Tempting Turquoise” nail polish. Vidal Sassoon topped her look with a natural easy-care short bob, away from the restrictions of rollers, curls and hours under a hairdryer hood.
The graphic cuts, trademark bob, bold look and style inspired a generation of women to be self-assured and modern. A fashionable look toward healthy dressing which continues today. Wellbeing in the wardrobe fitting the rhythm and style of our time.
