The mini - Mary Quant

The Skirt

"Good taste is death, vulgarity is life." Mary Quant

According to Mary Quant's own website, the mini-skirt revolution actually started in 1955, when she opened Bazaar boutique in the Kings Road, Chelsea, London. Irrespective of the truth of this (and she should know, eh?), the mini will forever be viewed as the mainstream fashion statement of the sixties.

In Mary Quant's view, her aim was to free women to move and run more easily. The miniskirt as a weapon of feminist progress?

Quant's goal was certainly to bring fashion to the high street and to make it accessible (in terms of price) to the many, rather than the few. Among Quant's innovations (or at least, the ones she's often credited with) are vinyl boots:

and coloured tights:

She also helped popularise, in collaboration with Vidal Sassoon, that other classic sixties look, the "five point" hairstyle.

This clip is worth the watch - not just because it's a genuine Quant press launch. The commentary and background music are 100% 'staid sixties'.  Quant and the "Chelsea look" may have been 'swinging' but the voice-over sounds like a refugee from Pathé News:

David Bailey - 1960s photography

It's the sixties, yeah? So, allowing for whatever sex/gender/sexual orientation you might be, here's a question for you:

Who do you want to be (with)? Jagger? Hendrix? A Beatle? James Bond?  Or maybe, then again, how about this guy?

Self-portrait

Jean Shrimpton - "the Shrimp"

David Royston Bailey - born 2nd January 1938, in London's East End (ie the rough bit).  With Jean Shrimpton as his model, Bailey almost single-handedly rewrote the rules for fashion photography, introducing attitude, action and novel background settings into their work together:

Bailey (along with Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy) was at the heart of capturing the image and essence of so-called 'Swinging London':

Michael Caine - 1965

Mick Jagger - 1964

Bailey's 1964 poster-print collection "Box of Pin-ups" covered subjects from The Beatles to the Krays:

The Kray brothers - notorious London gangsters.

But for most of us, men and women, it will be Bailey's gift for making his female subjects look beautiful, enigmatic, intriguing...desirable which endures.

"We were all killing ourselves to be his model" Grace Coddington (Vogue model 1960s)

Grace Coddington with Vidal Sassoon

Catherine Deneuve -- 1965

Marianne Faithful

Never, of course, forgetting, The Shrimp:

David Bailey - the 60s have never ended.