A 20 page sketchbook by the iconic 1960s fashion designer Mary Quant is to go under the hammer at Dukes auctioneers. It was presented to Alfred Page a close friend of the designer and has been consigned by a relative.
Amy Brenan of Duke’s stated: “Each design has been completed in pencil and depicts female models wearing designs for full-length evening dresses or suit combinations. Quite a few of the designs have been coloured using gouache paint while others are just very basic pencil outlines including one of a wedding dress. There are even some studies of the finer details on the outfits. For example, one is a design of the neckline of a dress, showing intricate beading and scrolls. Another few pages appear to be designs for printed fabrics which are very much in the style of 1950s and 1960s Poole Pottery. It is a great collection of working ideas and designs.”
The sketchbook is neither signed or dated but these sketches are likely to have been done by Quant in her early years as a student, before she became famous, making them quite significant.” It is thought that Alfred Page met Mary Quant at the Royal College of Art, where Page worked as a lecturer in printing. Though Quant attended Goldsmiths College in the 1950s, students from all of the London Art colleges socialised together, swapping ideas and discussing their projects.
Mary Quant made her name in the swinging 60s as the creator of the ‘mini skirt’. With cutting edge fashion shows and unusual window displays, she secured her reputation through the production of new and exciting clothing, sold in affordable trendy boutiques, for the new youth market. England was swinging like a pendulum; it was all Twiggy and The Beatles; the dawn of a bright new mad, mod world. This is how the Mary Quant worldwide brand was born.The mid sixties was the height of her fame, when she created the micro-mini and the ‘paint box’ make-up of 1966, she added shiny, plastic raincoats and small grey pinafore dresses that summed up the 60’s fashion era.
10th April Dukes Auctioneers. The sketchbook has an estimate of £100-£200. For more information, please contact Duke’s on 01305 265080.