| Come
inside Daisy's closet, and see the quirky British bird in a selection
of original outfits created by spritely designer Mary Quant between
1973 and 1983. Quant also created Daisy's oversized face, intending
her to look like a typical British model of the early seventies.
Often credited, along with Andre Courreges, for "inventing"
the mini-skirt, Quant actually just kept shortening skirts until
she arrived at the mini in 1964. Quant's name was synonymous
with the British youthquake. Turning her back on the mature,
conservative high-fashion customer, Quant catered instead to
the growing youth market with cheaper and cheekier clothes. Her
outfits confounded the class system by turning the stripes of
sports jerseys or the pockets of workmen's uniforms into signifiers
of hipness. Quant herself wore these youthful styles, with a
geometric haircut by Vidal Sassoon to top off the look. Quant's
signature mod dress-shape was streamlined and slightly swingy,
evoking both the remembered innocence of a little girl's smock
and the anticipated precision of future fashion. Although she
belongs to a later period, Daisy also embodies Quant's sassy
chic. Daisy has her share of slinky, satiny evening wear, making
it possible for her to play the sophisticated Brit. But it's
her graphic day-wear that defines her. Quant's beloved polkadots,
stripes and checks of many colours abound, as you can see in
Joan Corlass's art-nouveau-meets-comic-strip illustrations of
Daisy's wardrobe. Collectors covet these stunning illustrations,
which ran in booklets accompanying the Daisy dolls, as much as
they do Daisy herself. |
romany
and smarty
