Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the design and career of Mary Quant. I liked the fact this show looked at the business innovations of Mary Quant as well as having a great show of the clothes. It was nice that so many of the clothes came with a story about who had owned then and when they’d worn them but because these labels were so low down it was hard to read them in a crowded gallery also please consider you audience who largely wear vary vocals and have to bend down to read these so blocking other people from seeing them even more! I had expected this to be a very colourful show but had forgotten our love of browns and mud greens in the 60s and 70s. I was fascinated to see all the different collections and price points Quant had designed for and to see how her work influenced the things I had worn as a child at that time. The show covered her innovations well from transforming shopping with the opening of her first shop Bazaar ...

Nostalgic exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at how designers in London from the late 19040s to 1960s changed the look of the nation. The show focused on Mary Quant and Terence  Conran although it included others such as Bernard and Laura Ashley. I loved the way the show used objects and clothes. Textiles were displayed well and shown like art works. I say it was nostalgic as it was full of things I recognised from my youth and it made me realise my parents were more fashionable that I gave them credit for! I lived near the first Habitat store in Wallingford and it was a regular spot for weekend trips.   I welled up at the sight of the flat pack cardboard dolls house I must have had for Christmas 1968 which my father and a friend who was staying spent all day making for me. I think it had been bought as much for them as me. It even had a little cardboard cat. The clothes didn’t mean so much to me but it was lovely to read that Quant was partl...