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Who wore it best? Mary Quant edition

L: Color photo of brunette Francie; R: B&W photo of model in similar dress by Mary Quant. Both dresses have waists just below the busts, large pointy collars, and skirts with wide vertical stripes. The Quant dress top has a checked pattern while Francie's is polka-dotted. Francie's has a bow at the waist and two buttons going down the bodice, while the Quant dress has two buttons at the waist. The Quant collar is the same fabric as the top, while Francie's has a white collar and cuffs. We can't see if the Quant dress has cuffs because the model's hands are behind her back.
L: Francie wears It’s a Date (1966). Source: Theriault’s. R: Jean Shrimpton in Mary Quant, 1963.

In her 1965 memoir Quant wrote, “When you break a rule, you automatically arrive at something different and this is fun. Take stripes, checks and polka dots. For years these were worn on their own or teamed with a plain colour. Nobody asked why. I believe in mixing patterns and colours wildly. So far as I’m concerned, spots go with stripes and checks.”

Top: B/W photo of three models' legs in patterned tights, all crossing each other and each wearing two different shoes. At front are white or light tights with a diamond pattern, then black tights with large polka dots, then dark tights with a scale pattern. Bottom: Color photo. Light-haired Francie in It's a Date, including the light tights with dot pattern, lying on her back and kicking her legs in the air.
Top: From a 1965 advertisement for Mary Quant patterned tights. Bottom: Francie in It’s a Date.
L: B/W photo of Twiggy lying down, looking up at the camera, wearing shiny makeup, a metallic A-line minidress, glittery tights and ballet-style slippers with criss-cross ribbons over her ankles. R: Color image of Casey lying down in Silver Cage, a hot pink shift with silver net A-line overdress, pink and silver net tights, and pink bow shoes. Her silver purse sits next to her.
L: Twiggy in 1966, wearing glitter tights by Mary Quant. R: Casey in The Silver Cage (1968)

(The above is not meant to claim that Silver Cage is a Mary Quant design–neither is the frock Twiggy wears here–but in the mid-60s Quant made great innovations in womens’ tights; the glitter ones of ’66 were a particular success.)

L: Color closeup of Francie in the dress from Concert in the Park, a similar silhouette to It's a Date with very high waist and straight skirt. The top is white with red dots, ruffled collar and ruffles at the wrists. R: B/W photo of model in Mary Quant. Her dress is a shift in white with black or dark-colored polka dots, ruffled collar and ruffles at the wrists.
L: Francie in the Concert in the Park (1966) dress. R: Jean Shrimpton in Daddy’s Girl by Mary Quant for Ginger Group, 1964.
L: Color photo of Francie in the Concert in the Park ensemble; R: B/W photo of model in Mary Quant. As in the previous image, Francie's top is white with red polka dots. The Quant ensemble includes a white top with polka dots. Both wear vests, Francie's in blue matching her skirt, and the model in an unknown shade that also matches the skirt. Both wear hats: Francie's in the polka-dotted fabric of her dress top with a blue bow, Celia Hammond's in black with a tie at neck. Francie carries a purse in the same polka dot fabric with red trim,
L: Francie in Concert in the Park. R: Celia Hammond in Coal Heaver by Mary Quant, 1962.

A 1965 New Yorker piece covering a Mary Quant “Youthquake” fashion promotion for the States quotes from a brochure titled, “Youthquake Lingo (For Salespeople Only)”: “‘Super’ is the British way of saying O.K. All these Youthquake fashions are very much super, meaning O.K. ‘Smashing’ is the English word for ‘great,’ meaning the most exciting. And it’s a great word to use for the entire Youthquake collection. A ‘flakeout’ is so bad it’s really awful…”

When Francie hit the scene the following year, an article in Barbie Magazine titled “Say It In Mod” explained, “Mod is short for modern and it means new… Cool means anything that’s great… and so does fabby, and marvey and neat! In means anything that’s in style, out means anything that isn’t! Groovy and gear are the same as cool…” and so forth (as transcribed by BillyBoy* in Barbie: Her Life and Times).

L: Color photo. Brunette Casey in low-waisted sleeveless dress with pleated skirt and buttons down the front. R: Mary Quant, with dark brown bobbed hair, in a pin-striped low-waisted sleeveless dress with pleated skirt. She wears dark hose and black flat or low-heeled shoes, and dances with a man in a suit. Casey's legs are bare and her feet are not visible.
L: Casey in Pleat Neat (1967). R: Quant and husband/business partner Alexander Plunket Greene dance in New York City. Photographed for Life Magazine’s 1960 feature, “A British Couple’s Kooky Styles.”

The preceding images of Quant, Shrimpton, Hammond, and unknown models in tights come from the Victoria and Albert Museum and its 2019 exhibition catalog, Mary Quant.

L: B/W photo of Mary Quant in a low-waisted knee-length sailor dress with white sleeveless top, dark skirt, and ribbon trim. R: Color photo of brunette Casey in red sleeveless sailor minidress with teal buttons down the front, teal ribbon tie front and teal-trimmed red hat.
L: Mary Quant in London, 1961. R: Casey in Land Ho! (1969).

Quant also wrote in ’65 that “there was a time when every girl under twenty yearned to look an experienced, sophisticated thirty… when every girl dreamed of a slinky black dress worn with very high heels. All this is in reverse with a vengeance now… their ambition is to look like Patty [sic] Boyd rather than Marlene Dietrich.” (Twiggy would be discovered the following year.)

I swear, that Pattie Boyd–herself a Teen-Age Fashion Model when she met future husband George Harrison in 1964, catapulting her to celebrity status–reminds me of someone I’ve seen…

Black and white photo of Pattie Boyd and color photo of Francie in box, both from the shoulder up. They have strikingly similar facial features (though Francie's eyes are brown and we know from other sources that Pattie's are an intense shade of blue) and similar length flip hairdos with heavy fringes.
Mid-Sixties Pattie, meet mid-Sixties Francie.

sheathsensation

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3 responses to “Who wore it best? Mary Quant edition”

  1. Taswegian1957 Avatar
    Taswegian1957

    Very interesting post. I hadn’t thought of Pattie Boyd in years . She does look like Francie, or does Francie look like Pattie?

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    1. sheathsensation Avatar
      sheathsensation

      Hi! Thanks for the reblog and positive comments. You have a great website!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. The “built” environments of Whitman Barbie paper dolls – Silken Flame

    […] A thematically similar design from 1966 shows either a boudoir scene or a store dressing room (since there are tags on all the dresses). We used this backdrop for a Francie/Casey photo shoot in a recent post. […]

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