A much-anticipated international exhibition exploring the work of legendary fashion designer Mary Quant has opened at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
Join in the fashion, freedom and fun as Mary Quant: Fashion Revolutionary explores the cultural icon who embodied the youthquake of the Sixties and embraced new mass-production techniques to create new looks and lifestyles for modern women.
Auckland Art Gallery Director Kirsten Lacy is excited to bring this international exhibition to Auckland, encapsulating the spirit of Quant and exploring her immense impact on fashion and culture to New Zealanders.
“Mary Quant’s effect on women and mainstream culture was entirely revolutionary. She invited women to dress for having active and playful lives. She made fashion accessible, affordable, comfortable and available to all women. She completely democratised fashion, and moreover gave women the outfits to challenge the status quo and lead bigger and fuller lives than had previously been available to them,” says Lacy.
Famously modelled by Twiggy, Grace Coddington and more, Mary Quant’s clothes personified the energy and fun of swinging London and Quant became a powerful role model for the working woman. Challenging conventions, she is known as the face of the miniskirt and popularised colourful tights and tailored trousers – encouraging a new age of feminism.
Inspiring young women to rebel against traditional dress worn by their mothers and grandmothers, Quant turned a tiny boutique on the King’s Road, London, into a wholesale brand available in department stores across the UK, US, Europe and Australia. Quant’s success soon hit New Zealand, where her designs made fashion less exclusive and more accessible to a new generation.
Exhibition details
When:
Friday 10 December 2021 to Sunday 13 March 2022
10am–5pm daily
10am–9pm Fridays (except Friday 24 and Friday 31 December 2021)
Where:
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Cnr Kitchener and Wellesley Streets
Auckland, New Zealand
Admission:
Members FREE
Adult $24.50
Child under 12 and under FREE
