Mary Quant's mini skirt is apparently the best fashion
1965, the year Mary Quant’s mini-skirt launched into the mainstream, is officially the best-ever in women’s fashion – according to the British women aged 50+ who have seen it all and worn it all.
1986, when shoulder pads, power dressing and oversized cuts were all the rage, was the worst.
Online retailer isme.com invited 1,000 women who have lived through all the past fifty years of fashion to give their opinion – with the benefit of hindsight – on the highs and lows of their wardrobe histories.
Using the data on best and worst decades, most classic and tragic fashion items worn and the opinions on most influential women on the British wardrobe, researchers evaluated the year that stood out the most.
The results were conclusive: no other fashion year was as swinging as 1965 - when Mary Quant hit the jackpot and her mini-skirt, as worn by model Jean Shrimpton at the Melbourne Races, caused a rising hemline revolution.
Most influential women
Designer Mary Quant came top in findings for women whose look they have deliberately imitated in the past, followed by Princess Diana, Twiggy, Farrah Fawcett and Debbie Harry. Just 1 per cent of women admitted to taking any style hints from the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, whose taste in designer attire in the created a media stir throughout the late 1980s.
Top fashion classics from the last 50
The Little Black Dress, as worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s in the 60s and which came back into vogue in the 1980s then never went away, was named the No.1 classic item of the last fifty years with a 91 per cent approval rating. In second was the mini-skirt followed by the Wonderbra, Maxi dress and ballet pumps.
Most tragic from the last 50
The shell-suit was voted most tragic items looks with a whopping 92 per cent expressing disapproval or regret in a list that included the Spandex mini-skirt and oversized shoulder pads which were both a wardrobe staple in the 80s.
No time like the present
While 1965 may have been the best year for fashion, 2012 – the present day – was voted as the time women feel most confident about what to wear – with 55% saying they dress with the best influences and items from previous decades.
According to Jackie Lewis, Shapeologist for isme.com’s 50-plus brand Savoir: “There’s no arguing with the women who have seen it, done and got the Katherine Hamnett t-shirt. 1965 for many was the starting point for young women to express themselves, dress like the stars and spawned a national fascination about the latest trends that has gone through the decades to the present day.
“Most of these women will have grown up kids of their own now, but having lived through flower power, punk, shoulder pads and Sarah Ferguson they know what works and nothing can surprise them.”
Women whose look or style British over-55s have imitated in the past:
1. Mary Quant 40%
2. Princess Diana 33%
3. Twiggy 29%
4. Farrah Fawcett 25%
5. Debbie Harry 22%
6. Lulu 18%
7. Helen Mirren 17%
8. Joanna Lumley 17%
9. Diana Rigg 16%
10. Joan Collins 8%
Classic items – approval rating
1. Little black dress 91%
2. Mini-skirt 79%
3. Wonderbra 75%
4. Maxi dress 71%
5. Ballet pumps 70%
Tragic – disapproval rating
1. Shell suit 91%
2. Spandex mini skirt 88%
3. Dungarees 73%
4. Jump suit 68%
5. Shoulder pads 62%