MARY QUANT

Mary Quant, fashion designer for Swinging London, turned 80 yesterday. Quant was one of the first designers to develop the Mini Skirt and her slim youthful creations defined the look for the decade. Arriving in Britain during the sexual revolution, with the newly available birth control pill, the rising hemline was a statement of rebellion. The design spread like wildfire and similar work by designers like Andre Courreges, Pierre Cardin, and Yves St. Laurent popped up around the continent. UK viewers saw one of the earliest appearances of the Mini Skirt designed for Diana Rigg by John Bates on The Avengers.

Quant's Mini was featured in a series of stamps honoring iconic British designs, which included the red phone booth, spitfire airplane, double-decker bus, and the mini cooper. Asked at the time about her own Mini Cooper, she said, "The Mini car went exactly with the Mini Skirt… It was optimistic, exuberant, young, flirty. It was exactly right." Mini Cooper offered a limited edition of 2,000 Mary Quant motor cars in 1988. Career profile from British Pathe here. Image of Mini Dress worn by dancer Kathy Gale (not of Avengers fame) on the Steve Allen Comedy Hour (1967) from the NY Daily News. Happy Birthday, Mary!

Recent Spy Vibe posts: Patrick Macnee, Gloria Steinem and Denny O'Neil on MOD Wonder Woman, Win Scott Eckert interview, Siegel and Shuster's SPY, David McCallum: Son of Batman, Jon Gilbert talks Fleming, Barbarella TV series, Meet the Beatles 50th, Wonderwall comes to Blu-ray, Batman Strips, David Bowie at 67, Kevin Dart talks Ringo & Powerpuff Girls, Sherlock Exhibit, Fu Manchu history panel, Andy Warhol box set, Six-Million Dollar Man, Striped Light Nude, Buckminster Fuller, Dylan at Newport, Jane and Serge, The Goldfinger Variations, Mod Tales Interview, Pete Seeger, Kraftwerk returns to US, Beatles BBC on Fresh Air, Steranko S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist Editions, David Tennant's Ian Fleming audio books, Atomic Art, Modern Architecture LP, Julius Shulman, Shane Glines Batman, The Prisoner and Captain Scarlet, Diego Fortunato and Verner Panton, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Assassination Bureau on DVD, new Young Bond series, new Hercule Poirot novel, Early Beatles image archive, Julie Newmar, Erno Goldfinger, Hitchcock tribute. 

Recent Ian Fleming posts on Spy Vibe: Ian Fleming Letters, Erno Goldfinger, Ian Fleming Music Series links: Noel Coward, Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, Jon Gilbert interview, Double 007 Designs, Bond audio book reissues, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, rare View to a Kill, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address, Spy Vibe's Ian Fleming image archive.