Fashion designer Dame Mary Quant dies aged 93

Dame Mary Quant, the British fashion designer credited with popularising the miniskirt and helping to define the Swinging ’60s, has passed away peacefully at home in Surrey at the age of 93. 

Twiggy, who became a style icon during the era, led the tributes to Dame Mary, describing her as “a brilliant female entrepreneur” who revolutionised fashion and had “such an influence on young girls in the late 50s early 60s.” 

Her far-sighted and creative talents quickly established a unique contribution to fashion, and she was one of the most influential figures in the fashion scene of the 1960s. 

Her family described her as “one of the most internationally recognised fashion designers of the 20th Century and an outstanding innovator”.

“She opened her first shop Bazaar in the King’s Road in 1955 and her far-sighted and creative talents quickly established a unique contribution to British fashion.”

Family statement

She made fashion accessible to the masses with her sleek, streamlined, and vibrant designs, and her contribution to turning thigh-skimming super-short hemlines into an international trend has not been disputed. A retrospective exhibition of her work opened at the V&A in 2019 and has since toured Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Japan.

Tributes to Dame Mary 

Former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman called Dame Mary a “leader of fashion but also in female entrepreneurship”, adding she was “a visionary who was much more than a great haircut.”

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

The Victoria & Albert Museum said: “It’s impossible to overstate Quant’s contribution to fashion. She represented the joyful freedom of 1960s fashion, and provided a new role model for young women.

“Fashion today owes so much to her trailblazing vision.”