British fashion designer Mary Quant is dead. She died peacefully at home on Thursday morning at the age of 93, the British news agency PA reported, citing a statement by the family.
“Dame Mary, 93, was one of the most celebrated fashion designers of the 20th century and a preeminent pioneer of the ‘Swinging Sixties,'” the family said in a statement. Quant is survived by a son, three grandchildren and her brother Tony Quant. Her husband Alexander Plunket Greene died in 1990.
Quant was born in south-east London on February 11, 1930 to two Welsh teachers and dreamed of becoming a designer. A dance student inspired her to create her classic outfit, which later became the look of a whole generation with the model Twiggy (actually: Lesley Lawson): Skin-tight black sweater with a super-short pleated skirt, deep black tights and a bob haircut. In addition, big doe eyes with lots of mascara.
Quant began sewing clothes for himself from bedspreads and school uniforms and studied at the prestigious Goldsmiths College in London. There she met her future husband and business partner, Alexander Plunket Greene.
At 21, Quant opened her first shop on London’s famous King’s Road to sell clothes and accessories to the fashionable. With no one designing the clothes she envisioned, she began producing fashion herself. She named the mini skirt after her favorite car, the Mini Cooper.
This sexy skirt length wasn’t new, but its trendy designs quickly caught on on the streets of the fashion capitals of London and New York. Because it was important to her to make clothing affordable, she even published the patterns of her designs. Her fashion represented women’s liberation, economic prosperity and fun.
Mary Quant’s look was based on simple shapes and bold statements. She combined the beatnik style of the late 50s with strong colors and short skirt lengths. Peter Pan collars and colorful tights appeared again and again in her collections alongside the mini skirt. In addition, the fashion world owes her the hot pants, raincoats made of plastic, make-up like from the paint-box and waterproof mascara.
“My clothes just so happened to fit teenage fashion, pop, espresso bars and jazz clubs,” she said of her success in her first autobiography, Quant by Quant, published in 1965.
Quant is considered one of the most influential names on the fashion scene in the 1960s. In 1966 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her contribution to the fashion industry. In 2014 she was made a “lady” and just a few months ago she was even awarded the high rank of “Companion of Honour”.
Their shop in London’s Chelsea quickly became a popular meeting place for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Her customers also included acting stars such as Brigitte Bardot.
