Dame Mary Quant: fashion designer dies at 93

The fashion designer, Lady Mary Quandt, has passed away at the age of 93, her family announced.

A statement from her family told the Palestinian News Agency that she “passed away peacefully at her home in Surrey, UK this morning.”

Dame Mary is credited with popularizing the miniskirts that helped define the Swinging 60s.

Her family said she was “one of the most celebrated and internationally recognized fashion designers of the twentieth century and an outstanding creator”.

She opened her first Bazaar store in Kings Road in 1955 and her far-sighted and creative talents quickly established a unique contribution to British fashion.

The Victoria and Albert Museum said: Quandt’s contribution to fashion cannot be overstated. She represented the joyful freedom of 1960s fashion, and provided a new model for young women.

“Today’s fashion owes much to its pioneering vision.”

Fashion Director of the International New York Times. Vanessa Friedman tweeted: “RIP Mary Quant, who freed the female leg. We owe you.”

Lady Mary was one of the most influential figures on the 1960s fashion scene and is credited with making fashion accessible to the masses through her elegant, streamlined, and vibrant designs.

Born in south-east London on February 11, 1930, Lady Mary was the daughter of two Welsh schoolteachers.

She earned a diploma in Art Education in the 1950s at Goldsmiths College, where she met her husband, Alexander Plunkett Green, who later helped establish her label.

The budding designer was taken as an apprentice to a milliner before creating her own clothes, and in 1955 she opened Bazaar, a boutique on Kings Road in Chelsea.

Her far-sighted and inventive talents soon proved to be a unique contribution to British fashion.

It can be said that Lady Mary was best known for designing miniskirts and hot pants as well as helping to develop the fashion style of the 1960s.

A retrospective of her work opened at the V&A in 2019 and has since toured Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Japan.

Reflecting on the first 20 years of her career as the show took off, Dame Mary said: “It was wonderfully exciting and despite the frantic hard work we had so much fun.

“We didn’t necessarily realize that what we were creating was groundbreaking, we were simply too busy enjoying all the opportunities and embracing the results before rushing off to the next challenge.”