The designer who made miniskirts a mod staple

Mary Quant 1930–2023

Designer Mary Quant was the mod queen of the 1960s, as integral to the decade’s fashion as the Beatles were to its music. Her London boutique, Bazaar, served as epicenter of the “youthquake,” selling colorful, mixand-match hot pants, tights, and berets—a revolt against modest floral dresses and hourglass femininity. A force of nature in a chic bob, Quant popularized the miniskirt, which she named after her favorite car, the Mini Cooper. Quant, who became a global celebrity, didn’t take credit for inventing minis, but she did make them hotter and tinier. “I was making clothes which would let you run and dance,” she said. “I wore them very short, and the customers would say, ‘shorter, shorter.’”

Quant was born in London, to Welsh parents who were teachers, said The New York Times. While studying art education at Goldsmith’s College in London she met Alexander Plunket Greene, the wealthy man who would become her husband, and they opened Bazaar with another partner in 1955. The boutique “was a hit from the get-go, with young women stripping the place bare on a near-daily basis.” Within a decade, Quant had become a global brand, and she was given an order of chivalry in 1966 for her contribution to British exports.

Critics—ranging from Coco Chanel to the queen’s dressmaker—called the miniskirt vulgar, said The Atlantic, but Quant’s aim “was not to bare women’s legs, but to liberate them from the long skirts, stockings, garters, girdles, and petticoats of the 1950s.” She found inspiration in looks associated with children, and often sported fake freckles and outfits that looked like playclothes. “Growing up seemed terrible,” she said. “Children were free and sane, and grown-ups were hideous.”