Designer of THAT Diana Rigg catsuit dies aged 83
ALTHOUGH Mary Quant is credited with inventing the mini-skirt, some say its real creator was designer John Bates, who died of cancer on Sunday aged 83.
For the label Jean Varon, he also created the provocatively tight catsuit worn by Diana Rigg in The Avengers. It not only catapulted her to stardom, but helped define the style of the Swinging Sixties.
Bates lived for a time in a luxurious apartment and drove a white Rolls-Royce, but he spent his last years in obscurity in Wales, explaining that he had ‘no regrets at all’.