In celebration of London Fashion Week, our Wollstonecraft lecture was delivered by alumna Isabella Smith. Isabella is about to start her second year of studies at Central St Martins and she spoke passionately about another Blackheath High alumna, Dame Mary Quant.

Isabella had researched Dame Mary’s work extensively and she gave a detailed account of her work and legacy. Often cited as being the inventor of the miniskirt, Dame Mary’s influence on the way British women looked and moved in the sixties is incalculable with experts agreeing that she is as influential as Chanel and Dior.

Born in Blackheath, she attended Blackheath High before studying illustration at Goldsmiths, University of London. Isabella placed Dame Mary’s fashion in context and answered questions about fashion politics for a Sixth Form who thoroughly enjoyed the first Wollstonecraft lecture of the school year.