Mary Quant: My Autobiography by Mary Quant

Author:Mary Quant [QUANT, MARY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2011-12-01T16:00:00+00:00

ICI

IN 1970, THE giant British manufacturing company ICI made an extraordinary proposition that I should design a coordinated home furnishing set, consisting of a duvet cover, a wallpaper design and a stretch cover for armchairs and sofas, plus paint colours that would also harmonise with the designs and work together. It would mean working with four different subdivisions of the company and bringing them all together. Duvets were almost unknown in this country and France, and were really only used in Scandinavian countries and Germany. ICI wanted to make them popular here.

Alexander and I had already lugged an enormous duvet back from Norway by plane, having loved the pleasure of sleeping under them in Scandinavia. We were already converted. In those days you could only buy plain duvet covers, hidden away in a single deep drawer at one store, Heal’s, in London.

At first I turned down the proposition, saying that fashion design was my role and I didn’t know the furnishing market. But ICI insisted. ‘We want to bring fashion into the furnishing market,’ they said, ‘which is why we have asked you.’ It did occur to me then that, yes, I did want to buy the same fashion colours and patterns that I used on my clothes for our apartment, and that, yes, I would love to specify the Dulux paint colours to go with it (Dulux was owned by ICI). And what’s more, I wanted an Old English Sheepdog to go with it too.

Coordination was the new watchword in design. Having designed so many fashion pieces that were meant to work together – for sportswear, work or play – the idea was natural to me. It was like visualising tunic dresses, skinny rib sweaters and pantyhose all worn together. It was simply coordinated sportswear for the house.

The timing of the ICI deal was perfect, as the washing machine was becoming the new booming household essential, and duvets made bedmaking easy. The new career girl was our customer, so this was a lovely design job for me. The gingham wallpaper became a classic for many years. It had a frieze of gingham on the cross to coordinate with it.

The first package was so successful that the various manufacturers working under the ICI umbrella wanted to go on with many more designs, whether it was paint colours, soft furnishings, wallpaper or whatever. The problem was that each manufacturer wanted equally noisy designs because it would gain them photographic exposure for publicity, but of course it was impossible to coordinate four equally gasp-making ideas. Which was to be the cool brand? Some of the manufacturers would arrive in their own private aeroplanes. I remember complaining I was becoming a psychiatrist to their needs: balancing the macho egos of these mega-manufacturers became quite a problem. Alexander came back from lunch one day followed by a Le Corbusier chaise longue for me to lay my clients on.

Indeed we did buy an Old English Sheepdog pup. We called him Buster. Alexander collected him from

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