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Dame Mary Quant - the British queen of Swinging Sixties fashion who introduced miniskirts and hot pants to the world - died peacefully at home today aged 93.
The south-east London designer famously declared she 'didn't have time to wait for women's lib' and so began a fashion revolution to rescue young women of the 1950s and 1960s from being forced to dress like their mothers for another generation.
Dame Mary raised hemlines to audacious heights, spearheaded sack dresses and turned women's trousers and tights into wardrobe staples, as well as popularising the bob haircut pioneered by her friend, the hairdresser Vidal Sassoon.
Sleeveless shift dresses, PVC raincoats, Peter Pan collars, skinny-rib sweaters, block-coloured tights and jumpsuits were also among Dame Mary's revolutionary designs.
Her make-up range would also come to be considered as forward-thinking as her clothing.
In 2014, Dame Mary, who named the miniskirt after her favourite make of car, recalled its 'feeling of freedom and liberation'. She said: 'It was the girls on King's Road who invented the mini. I was making clothes which would let you run and dance and we would make them the length the customer wanted. I wore them very short and the customers would say, "shorter, shorter".'
And it was Bazaar, Quant's small shop in the heart of the bohemian King's Road, that became the heart of London's 'Swinging Chelsea' and became the foundation for what would become an international fashion empire.
The south-east London designer famously declared she 'didn't have time to wait for women's lib' and so began a fashion revolution to rescue young women of the 1950s and 1960s from being forced to dress like their mothers for another generation.
Dame Mary raised hemlines to audacious heights, spearheaded sack dresses and turned women's trousers and tights into wardrobe staples, as well as popularising the bob haircut pioneered by her friend, the hairdresser Vidal Sassoon.
Sleeveless shift dresses, PVC raincoats, Peter Pan collars, skinny-rib sweaters, block-coloured tights and jumpsuits were also among Dame Mary's revolutionary designs.
Her make-up range would also come to be considered as forward-thinking as her clothing.
In 2014, Dame Mary, who named the miniskirt after her favourite make of car, recalled its 'feeling of freedom and liberation'. She said: 'It was the girls on King's Road who invented the mini. I was making clothes which would let you run and dance and we would make them the length the customer wanted. I wore them very short and the customers would say, "shorter, shorter".'
And it was Bazaar, Quant's small shop in the heart of the bohemian King's Road, that became the heart of London's 'Swinging Chelsea' and became the foundation for what would become an international fashion empire.
What can I say, I was young and male!
