Designer Dame Mary Quant passed away at the age of 93, and model Twiggy Lawson has led the tributes.
The family reported that the fashion icon passed away “peacefully at home in Surrey” on Thursday.
Miniskirts, a key component of the Swinging ’60s, were widely popularized by Dame Mary.
Dame Mary had “such an influence on young girls in the late 50s early 60s,” according to Twiggy, a fashion icon of the time.
She was a bright female businesswoman who revolutionized fashion, according to a post she made on social media. If she hadn’t been there, the 1960s “would never have been the same.”
Former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman described Dame Mary as a “leader of fashion but also in female entrepreneurship” and said she was “a visionary who was much more than a great haircut.”
Ode to Mary Quant High-street fashion’s pioneer of the 1960s
Through images: Miniskirt pioneer who helped shape 1960s fashion
Miniskirt and PVC pioneer Mary Quant
RIP Mary Quant, who liberated the feminine leg, wrote International New York Times fashion director Vanessa Friedman on Twitter. To you, we owe.
One of the most well-known fashion designers of the 20th century and a remarkable innovator, according to her family, she was.
“She opened her first store Bazaar in the King’s Road in 1955, and her forward-thinking and creative talents quickly established a unique contribution to British fashion,” the article states. Innovator Dame Mary has long been praised for her stylish creations that combined comfort and usefulness.
She was influenced by the 1950s counterculture environment that developed in west London, which served as her center of operations.
She drew inspiration from the Mod movement, which included Italian sportswear, and created clothes for everyday wear rather than just special occasions.
It was well-liked by a generation of young women looking for a change from the generally somber clothes that were popular in post-war Britain.”Quant’s contribution to fashion cannot be overstated,” the Victoria & Albert Museum declared. She gave young ladies a new role model and embodied the carefree fun of 1960s style.She had such a revolutionary vision, and it shows in fashion today.
Quant was described as “sort of wonderful, she was very positive” by photographer David Bailey, who captured much of the mood of London in the 1960s.
Watch the Witness History broadcast with Dame Mary Quant.
How space-age styles introduced by Quant in the 1960s altered how we dress
With her streamlined, colorful, and sleek designs, Dame Mary was one of the most important players in the 1960s fashion industry and is recognized for having made fashion more widely available.
Daughter of two Welsh schoolteachers, Dame Mary was born in south-east London on February 11, 1930.
She graduated from Goldsmiths College with a diploma in art teaching during the 1950s, and it was then that she also met her future husband, Alexander Plunket Greene, who would later assist in building her business.A aspiring fashion designer, Dame Mary first worked as a milliner’s apprentice before starting her own line of clothing. In 1955, she launched Bazaar, a store on the King’s Road in Chelsea.
The store would develop into Swinging London’s beating center. Clothing and accessories were sold at Bazaar, and the restaurant in the basement served as a gathering place for young people and creatives.
Soon, Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones began to congregate in the entire Chelsea neighborhood.
She immediately made a distinctive contribution to British fashion with her visionary and creative abilities.
The miniskirt, hot pants, and mod fashion’s development in the 1960s are among Dame Mary’s most notable contributions to fashion history.
2014’s “feeling of freedom and liberation” was recalled by Dame Mary, who gave the skirt her favorite car brand as a name.
“King’s Road girls invented the mini,” she claimed. I was creating clothing that would allow you to move freely while dancing and running.The clients would comment, “Shorter, shorter,” when I wore them very short.
As she designed short dresses and skirts with straightforward designs and vibrant colors that she dubbed “arrogant, aggressive, and sexy,” Dame Mary declared to the Guardian in 1967 that “good taste is death, vulgarity is life.” She also elevated the hemline well above the knee.
Dame Mary and late French fashion designer Andre Courreges, among others, engaged in a protracted and contentious argument over who actually originated the miniskirt.
However, there is no disputing her contribution to making thigh-skimming, extremely short hemlines a global craze.
To create a contemporary and funky aesthetic, Dame Mary experimented with geometric patterns, polka dots, and clashing colors. She also toyed with novel fabrics, such as stretch and PVC.
Her models were featured in elaborate and provocative window displays overlooking the King’s Road, which turned into a catwalk for miniskirts and attracted American photographers eager to capture Swinging London.
Dame Mary described this in her 1966 book Quant by Quant. “City gents in bowler hats beat on our shop window with their umbrellas shouting ‘immoral!’ and ‘disgusting!’ at the sight of our miniskirts over the tights, but customers poured in to buy,” she recalled.
The hairstylist and entrepreneur friend of Dame Mary’s, Vidal Sassoon, popularized the bob haircut that he had invented. Dame Mary also invented the narrow rib sweater, hot trousers, and waterproof mascara.For services to the fashion industry, Dame Mary received an OBE in 1966 and was created a dame in 2015. She was also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers and the recipient of the Minerva Medal, the society’s highest honor. In the most recent New Year’s Honors, she received the companion of honor designation.
After debuting at the V&A in 2019, a retrospective exhibition of her work traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Japan.
As the show premiered, Dame Mary reflected on the first 20 years of her career, saying, “It was incredibly thrilling and despite the hectic, hard work we had enormous joy.We were simply too busy enjoying all the opportunities and embracing the outcomes before moving on to the next challenge for us to have known that what we were doing was groundbreaking.
Sadie Frost, an actress and fashion designer, expressed her “honor” at being chosen to host a documentary about Dame Mary’s “astonishing life” in 2021.
Frost told the BBC that as she did more research and investigation into her life, she became more and more aware of the enormous influence she had on history, popular culture, fashion, and women’s rights. “I had a strong sense of familiarity and fondness for her. May Mary find peace.
