Sadie Frost Spotlights the Life and Legacy of Fashion Designer Mary Quant with Assured Directorial Debut QUANT
Sadie Frost is the definition of a multi-hyphenate. With an acting career spanning three decades and multiple mediums—including a turn as Lucy in Francis Ford-Coppola’s 1992 horror flick DRACULA—Frost’s additional creative endeavours include film producing and fashion design as co-founder of the label Frost French. Her most recent foray in filmmaking marks her feature directorial debut with new documentary QUANT, exploring the vibrant life of one of Britain’s most seminal fashion influences - Mary Quant.
“I think the point of fashion is not to get bored with looking at somebody.”
—Mary Quant
Featuring eclectic montages of archival footage and a stellar sixties soundtrack, QUANT transports audiences to the height of the swinging sixties and the cusp of the British invasion - a time when British art and culture, including America’s frenzied introduction to the beloved mop-topped Beatles, were taking the world by storm. Quant’s disillusionment with the limited fashion offerings available for women in the fifties directly informed her rebellious sense of style. Opening her first boutique in Chelsea in 1955, Quant dressed the working women of the youthquake generation in striking prints, flat shoes and innovative textiles - she was the first designer to use PVC to create ‘wet look’ clothes, one of many trends which have endured and returned to runways again and again. Her global commercial reach reflected a seismic culture shift for women beyond the young girls that paraded along London’s King’s Road garnering glares of consternation from uppity well-to-do suits. Archival footage of scenes from Quant’s life show how the young designer led a progressive movement which veered away from the restricting conservative sartorial aesthetics, introducing women the world over to vibrant fashion alternatives, including the ground-breaking introduction of the miniskirt. The revelation of Quant’s quirky offerings cemented the designer as a decidedly influential cultural icon. The film’s talking heads range from Kate Moss and Kinks guitarist Dave Davies to British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enniful and fashion designer (and Quant’s godson) Jasper Conran, all reflecting on the designer’s unique outlook and approach to her work.
The documentary blends an element of performativity into the narrative with select re-enactments, with actor Camilla Rutherford portraying the young Mary Quant, performatively and provocatively lip-synching quotes captured at various stages of the eponymous Quant’s pioneering career. Frost’s documentary does well to encapsulate the essence of women’s liberation which permeated sixties popular culture: vibrant self-expression and unapologetic independence seeped from Mary Quant’s personal convictions into every stitch she designed; designs which went on to make up the wardrobes of the girls who paraded in Quant’s clothes in droves. Ahead of QUANT’s premiere at the BFI London Film Festival last month, I asked Frost about her filmmaking process and how much she discovered about the inner workings and insecurities of Quant’s multi-faceted character. “When I first wrote the film’s ideas and themes down, what was quite miraculous was that most of the themes kind of fit together how I wanted them to. It was quite organic. Right from the beginning you can see that Mary was uncomfortable with herself - she says she has a square face, she was always - always - obsessed with her weight. [...] I love Mary Quant’s quotes - when you look at some of them, she talks about weight and age a lot, and obviously those were themes at that time for her when she was probably not very accepting of herself.”
Quant’s disillusionment with the restrictive female beauty standards which dominated the era she grew up in influenced her bold designs, which reflected a more liberated and individual modern woman. Frost captures this duality, the intersection of fashion and the women’s movement, in her film, and stated doing so as one of her aims in making the documentary. “She [Quant] did so much for women because she realised she didn’t want to be confined. I wanted the film to be about more than the person, the fashion designer: I wanted it to be about the movement, I wanted it to be bigger - to feel like she was a person, she was human, and what she did - what was going on at the time - made her who she was.”
Following its premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, QUANT is now available to view in theatres - visit Studio Soho Distribution for screening updates.
You can view the trailer for QUANT here.
