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.”
Mary Quant’s parents: Meet Jack Quant, Mildred G. Jones
The late fashionista’s parents are; Jack, and Mildred Quant. They came from mining families, but they both received scholarships to grammar school and earned first-class degrees at Cardiff University before moving to London to work as school teachers.
Meanwhile, Quant graduated from Blackheath High School. Her ambition for college had been to study fashion; however, her parents discouraged her from doing so, and she instead studied illustration and art education at Goldsmiths College, where she graduated in 1953. After completing her degree, she was apprenticed to Erik Braagaard, a high-end Mayfair milliner on Brook Street, close door to Claridge’s hotel.
Quant began by selling clothing obtained from wholesalers at her new Kings Road business, Bazaar. Her collection’s bolder and more unusual pieces began to receive greater notice from media outlets such as Harper’s Bazaar, and an American manufacturer purchased some of her dress designs.
