Miniskirt, hot pants ‘inventor’ and Swinging Sixties icon Mary Quant dies at 93
- The UK designer shot to the top of the fashion scene at the time when the Beatles and Rolling Stones dominated the music world
- She helped popularise the miniskirt – some credit her with inventing it – and the innovative colourful tights that went along with it
Mary Quant, the visionary fashion designer whose colourful, sexy miniskirts epitomised Swinging London in the 1960s and influenced youth culture around the world, has died. She was 93.
Quant’s family said she died “peacefully at home” in Surrey, southern England, on Thursday.
Quant helped popularise the miniskirt – some credit her with inventing it – and the innovative tights that went along with it, creating dresses and accessories that were an integral part of the look. She created mix-and-match, simple garments that had an element of whimsy. Some compared her impact on the fashion world to the Beatles’ impact on pop music.
“I think it was a happy confluence of events, which is really what fashion is so often all about”, said Hamish Bowles, international editor at large for American Vogue magazine. “She was the right person with the right sensibility in the right place at the right time. She appeared on the scene at the exact cusp of the ’60s”.
He said Quant was also an astute businesswoman who was one of the first to understand how branding oneself as a creative force could help her sustain her business and branch out into new fields, like cosmetics.
Quant was perfectly positioned to capitalise on the “youthquake” that took hold in the 1960s. She sensed that the days of the exclusive salons were numbered, and thought that even the great Parisian designers would follow ready-to-wear trends.