DEPARTURES STYLE THE NEW
DEPARTURES STYLE THE NEW MINI 48 Anything Goes A perennial fashion staple since the 1960s, raised hemlines are back in style, and this time, it’s all about inclusion, freedom and empowerment. by Avril Groom THE MINISKIRT IS BACK – but how often have you heard that before? It is true that the 1960s’ greatest gift to fashion has been revived sporadically: with the bright, tight 1980s version worn with power-shoulder jackets and brassy earrings, or the even shorter pastel and bubblegum styles circa Y2K. But the newest version is different, more integral to the way Iconic British model Twiggy in a shoot for Vogue in 1967 people dress and bound to be more than a one-season trend. The big question is: why now? As usual with major shifts in fashion, there’s more than one answer. The ESTATE OF BERT STERN/GETTY IMAGES
FROM LEFT: FREDERIQUE DUMOULIN, © PREEN old maxim that hems rise with the economy might have been true in the optimistic 1960s or the loadsamoney 1980s, but now, it feels like wishful thinking. Yet after a decade of easy romance with the midi dress – and the restrictions of the past two years – a more likely explanation may just be a renewed zest for sartorial adventure and bright optimism in our wardrobes, even if reality is a little slow in catching up. Fashion designers need to crystallise our dreams, and going out, socialising and dancing in a dress that smacks of freedom is one of them. The true inventor of the mini remains a mystery but the early 1960s, when the Space Age fantasies of Cardin and Courrèges in Paris were matched in a more street-style way by Mary Quant in London, is a From left: brief and bright tailoring by Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior; elegantly draped for summer cocktails, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi good place to start. Quant opened her King’s Road shop in the mid-1950s, at a time when young women who still dressed like their mothers would claim their own style with simple dresses, sweaters and skirts that got rapidly shorter. The now-iconic English designer symbolised a new lifestyle for women for whom a career was more important than homemaking. “I felt it was the girls on the King’s Road who really invented the mini,” says Dame Mary in her autobiography, Quant by Quant. “I was making easy, youthful clothes in which you could move, leap on a bus, run and dance. I wore them very short and the clients would say, ‘shorter, shorter!’ The mini was very exuberant, pure glee – our models ran and danced down the catwalk, the epitome of Swinging London, and it took Britain and America by storm.” Two years ago, the V&A held the first major exhibition on her work and influence, followed by last year’s film, Quant. Designers tend to absorb such material to turn it into something new. Although the DEPARTURES 49
