Dame Barbara Mary Quant (11 February 1930 – 13 April 2023) was a fashion designer and fashion icon from the United Kingdom. She played a key role in the 1960s London-based Mod and youth fashion trends.
She was one among the designers who claimed to have invented the miniskirt and hotpants. Ernestine Carter(7) stated: “A fortunate few are born at the right time, in the right place, and with the right talents. There are three in recent fashion: Chanel, Dior, and Mary Quant.”
What was Mary Quant famous for?
Dame Mary was famous for inventing miniskirts and hot pants, as well as contributing to the development of mod fashion in the 1960s.
One of the items most closely identified with Quant is the miniskirt, which has been recognized as one of the defining trends of the 1960s. While she is frequently credited with inventing the style, this claim has been contested by others.
Skirts, on the other hand, had been going shorter since the 1950s, reaching the knee by the early 1960s, but “Quant wanted them higher so they would be less restricting –they allowed women to run for a bus– …and were much, much sexier”.
Quant subsequently added: “The miniskirt was conceived by the girls on the King’s Road [during the “Swinging London” scene]. I was designing easy, youthful, uncomplicated garments that allowed you to move, run, and jump, and we would manufacture them to the length the consumer desired. Customers would say, ‘Shorter, shorter,’ when I wore them really short.”
She named the miniskirt after her favorite automobile, the Mini, and remarked of its wearers: “They are oddly feminine, but their femininity comes from their attitude rather than their appearance…She appreciates being noticed, but only in a witty way. She is vivacious, upbeat, and opinionated.”
