“MARY QUANT – DESIGNER”
A Talk by Ruth Lowe
and lunch
at Whittle Restaurant, Audley Binswood Retirement Village,
Binswood Avenue, Leamington Spa CV32 5SE
Tuesday, 18 November 2025,10.30am
For her lively talk, Ruth brings an extensive range of Mary Quant clothes and memorabilia demonstrating how design reflects and contributes to social change. She recalls memories for those who experienced the impact of Quant and her husband and partner Alexander Plunket-Greene on how the young and not-so-young dressed from the late 1950s onwards. But Quant’s influence as a designer went well beyond miniskirts and teenage fashion. Major players in the creation of ‘Swinging London’, they revolutionised the established fashion industry. Their wider impact on design in the second half of the 20th century is less often fully appreciated. Their creative partnership, originality and promotional innovation affected style and design across a wide range of activities and artifacts, inspiring others in the creative industries and changing how both men and women experienced their environments. Whether you think the 1960s were the high point of civilization or the era when the rot set in, it was an extraordinarily creative period where, arguably, the impact of the visual arts and design reached further into the lives of the population than in any previous era. Come along and be surprised as well as thoroughly entertained.
Ruth Lowe has built up an impressive collection of Quant clothes and examples of her surprisingly diverse range of designs. Ever since appearing on the Antiques Road Show many years ago, her expertise has been drawn on by historians of the 1960s and the media. She would love you to bring any Quant pieces, especially if you can still get into them. Show and tell.
This event will be held at Audley Binswood Retirement Village in Leamington Spa, sensitively adapted to retain much of the elegant Victorian characteristics of buildings created for ‘the education of sons of gentlemen’. After the talk, members will enjoy a light lunch of quiche and salad prepared by the staff of the impressive Whittle Restaurant on the mezzanine of the former school hall (see Whittle’s at Binswood | Leamington Spa Restaurant & Bistro). The whole school complex was adapted some 15 years ago to enable older people to live comfortably and independently.
Timing:
10.30 coffee,
11.00 talk and questions,
12.30 Comfort Break
12.45 Lunch
Parking: Street parking limited. Carpark: Chandos Street.
Any bus to Leamington stops near Audley Binswood at Arnold Lodge School.
If you need a lift – please click HERE
Price per ticket: including coffee and talk: £35 for members, £40 non-members
To book a place please click HERE
Booking closes on 14 November
