Another Icon Gone
Mary Quant, was one of those people to book-end the beginning an a new epoch. One of the few who recognise change is due and has the chutzpah to be the change. Not just think about it, or wish it would happen but does the work to bring about change. It is a rarity and that is why certain individuals are synonymous with their time.
As a liberal country it is easy to forget it was not too long ago a more conservative attitude prevailed and the progress made in our lives, attitudes and opportunities are born from a melting-pot of change wrought from the hard work and determination not to follow the rules that few have and even fewer have the conviction to act on.
Of course these charismatic vanguards are intoxicating, their freedom to explore new horizons, to flout the perceived convention to stand out and refuse to conform attracts other like-minds and provides a moment in time when the old rules can be well and truly thrown in the bin and new, unknown, uncertain and exciting horizons can be explored. The increasing involvement of AI in so many creative areas of our lives opens the question, how many more epoch’s will we see as the result of raw human emotion and desire to influence, change and improve their lived experience. We seem increasingly to survive on a diet of large-organised corporate ideas fed via a virtual world with the constant erosive message that it is progress, it is new, it is what everyone else is doing, it is convenient, it is what you need and it will be delivered today.
At 60 years of age, I keep looking for the young uprising against the slow, constant erosion of uniqueness in favour of being the same as everyone else, the notion that conformity is the new rebellion. From my position; it seems the only people working to control the narative, to both create and sate the appetite is a handful of puppeteers. More concerning these few powerful organisations have spent the past 15 years nullifying self-determination, administering their particular brand of tranquilliser with an intravenous drip, drip, drip via the largest most direct vein…social media.
History tells us eventually people will rise up against the status quo, they will shake off the sleep, however self ingested the cause and strike out for change. They will reclaim their individuality, their right to be different and the human instinct to evolve into who they are. But the structures we live in now are complex and remote; to some extent beyond our direct influence so I am not sure how many opportunities exist in the future for such individuals to rise up and carry a whole generation with them, to change forever what is the perceived norm and in so doing bring hope, expectation and revitalise peoples demand to move forward and embrace diversity.
Mary Quant raised more than the hem line; she captured the emotion of her time, interpreted it in a way that captured emotions and galvanised a generation to evoke change…she raised expectations.
