If 1960s fashion is your bag (baby), make sure to stop by London's V&A museum this year to check out their major exhibit celebrating the work of designer Mary Quant. Dame Mary pioneered and popularized the mini skirt, which came to symbolize the youthful, on-the-go attitudes in the early 60s. Revolutionary in hindsight, Dame Mary has described her process, and I think this can apply to artists working any media, as a focussed labor of love on the projects: "It was a wonderfully exciting time and despite the frenetic, hard work we had enormous fun. We didn’t necessarily realise that what we were creating was pioneering, we were simply too busy relishing all the opportunities and embracing the results before rushing on to the next challenge! Friends have been extremely generous in loaning, and in many cases, donating garments and accessories to the V&A which they have lovingly cherished for many years, so it will be fascinating to see what else will emerge! I am enormously grateful to have been involved with so many talented people whose contribution to that ground-breaking, revolutionary and memorable era will also be recognised.” Hear that, social media-era artists? The trick is to create, create, create, and make the work the focus. And I'm so pleased to see Dame Mary getting this special exhibit. From the V&A press release: "Today, the V&A announces that it has been given unprecedented access to Dame Mary Quant’s Archive to curate the first international retrospective on the revolutionary fashion designer in nearly 50 years. Opening in April 2019, the exhibition will focus on the years between 1955 and 1975, when Quant revolutionised the high street with her subversive and playful designs for a younger generation, from hot pants, miniskirts and trousers for women to accessories, tights and make-up. The exhibition will bring together over 200 objects, the majority of which have never been on public display. It will reveal the real stories behind the myths to explore how Quant democratised fashion and empowered women through her determination, ingenuity and unique personal style, which she exported around the world. The exhibition will be drawn from the V&A’s extensive fashion holdings, which includes the largest collection of Mary Quant garments in the world, as well as the designer’s personal archive and important international loans. Jenny Lister, curator of Mary Quant at the V&A, said: “Mary Quant liberated fashion in the late 1950s and early 60s. Known for establishing high street fashion, inventing hot pants and popularising the miniskirt, she freed women from rules and regulations, and from dressing like their mothers. This long-overdue exhibition will show how Mary made high fashion affordable for working women, and how her youthful, revolutionary clothes, inspired by London, made British streetstyle the global influence it remains today.” The exhibition runs from 6 April 2019 – 8 March 2020. Don't miss it! More info at V&A and Mary Quant. Images below: Dame Mary in the 1960s (at work and with Vidal Sassoon). In other news, I have a new book out (over 700 pages!) about one of America's legendary cartoonists. Check it out! Enjoy!
For Spy Vibers who grew up in the States reading comic books, it's especially fun to see how other countries approached sequential art- especially when it comes to classic 1960s tie-in projects. TV 21 and other UK titles featured beautifully painted pages and the British comics overall tended to use more of what Americans might call an illustrative style. IDW has been publishing a 3-volume set of books to collect the UK Star Trek comics, and I bring it up today because Bud's Art Books just announced a sale that includes Vol. 1 in the series at a discount price. From the press release: "In 1969, six months before the Star Trek TV series premiered in England, British comics readers were introduced to the characters in an original comic book series. The stories were serialized, generally 2 to 3 pages at a time, in 257 weekly magazines spanning five years and 37 storylines. Handsome painted artwork in the style of Frank Bellamy. 17 complete adventures. These extremely rare comics have never been published in the United States. Star Trek fans will quickly note that the comics were not written with strict adherence to Star Trek's core concepts. The Enterprise frequently traveled outside our galaxy, and the crew committed many violations of the never-mentioned Prime Directive along the way. Spock shouted most of his lines and often urged Kirk (or "Kurt," as his name was misspelled in early issues) to shoot first and ask questions later. But it's precisely that "offness" that makes them so eminently readable and deserving of a proper reprinting. They're unique in the annals of Star Trek and fans have gone without them for far too long." More details at Bud's Art Books. You can read a review at 13th Dimension. Related post: Star Trek 50th. In other news, I have a new book out (over 700 pages!) about one of America's great cartoonists. Check it out! Enjoy!
Before the Internet there was Calypso! Serving traditionally as a musical tradition to convey news, reviews, and culture, you can really learn what people were thinking about during various eras by hearing their songs. To continue my recent post about the tune "Spy Dust," I want to spotlight another song by Mighty Sparrow, this time from 1958. Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) is a Trinidadian who started his career out as a kid (then called "Little Sparrow") and found success by the mid-1950s. And as far as I can tell he's still going at 83! Where some calypsonians celebrated pop culture events (check out my past posts about Goldfinger songs), Sparrow has tended to focus on commentary about current events and concerns. After the Soviets launched Sputnik 2 -right on the heels of the first Sputnik satellite in space- international outrage was pouring in as backlash to the news that a dog named Laika had been launched into space as part of the Soviet project to send a living creature into orbit. Sparrow added his voice to the protest with his song "Russian Satellite." The tune (video and sample lyrics below) came out on Sparrow's 1958 7" record Calypso Carnival, as well as an album released under the same name that year. Fans of Bob Dylan's Theme-Time Radio may have heard it featured in the episode about Dogs. Animal cruelty wasn't the only aspect of Laika's project that was making waves during the Cold War; Sputnik 2 also raised concerns about the military implications of the Space Race and placing technology into orbit. More about Laika at The New Yorkerand Smithsonian Magazine. A brief history of animals in space here. "Poor little puppy" indeed! With the Russian satellite They should be all sent to prison For the dog that they poison In the Russian satellite Two Sputniks in the sky Had everybody hypnotize Now I am very sorry For the poor little puppy In the Russian satellite
