I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling a little flat recently. As a journalist, it’s my job to keep up with the news, but doing so often leaves me feeling drained and sad, angry and helpless. The clocks going forward has helped a little, the lighter, longer evenings bumping my spirits up a notch – but overall, I am significantly lacking in vim and vigour. The world as it currently is just doesn’t seem very exciting.

If you are suffering from a similar lack of joie de vivre at the moment, I can think of no better remedy than a trip to the V&A’s new Mary Quant retrospective. The exhibition, which features over 120 items of clothing, accessories, cosmetics and other paraphernalia created by the fashion designer between 1955 and 1975, is an uplifting blast of Swinging Sixties colour, energy and enthusiasm – and a happy reminder of what great fun it can be to be female.

The exhibition is spread across two floors, with the lower level designed to evoke a shopping street (like nearby King’s Road in Chelsea, where Quant opened her first boutique in 1955). Some of the outfits on display are over 60 years old, but it’s impossible not to be struck by how fresh and modern they look. There are thigh-skimming pinafore dresses layered over block colour turtlenecks, glossy patent trench coats, stylish comfy lingerie, high-neck polka dot playsuits, glittering tartan party frocks with ruffles down the front. The achingly cool mannequins – all bouncy Jean Shrimpton wigs and gangly limbs – add to the slightly surreal sense that you could be browsing in Topshop, rather than walking through a museum.

The V&A’s Mary Quant exhibit is a joyful reminder of how fun it is to be female