Iconic fashion designer Dame Mary Quant has died aged 93

British fashion designer Mary Quant died peacefully at her home in Surrey on Thursday morning, a statement from her family said.

It continued: “Dame Mary, aged 93, was one of the most internationally recognised fashion designers of the 20th century and an outstanding innovator of the Swinging Sixties.

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

She was one of the most influential figures in the fashion scene of the 1960s and is credited with making fashion accessible to the masses with her sleek, streamlined and vibrant designs.

Alexandra Shulman, former editor-in-chief of British Vogue, paid tribute on Twitter: “RIP Dame Mary Quant.

“A leader of fashion but also in female entrepreneurship- a visionary who was much more than a great haircut.”

The official Twitter account of the Victoria & Albert Museum, which recently hosted an exhibition about Dame Mary Quant’s designs, shared: “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.”

Born in southeast London on February 11 1930, Dame Mary was the daughter of two Welsh school teachers.

She gained a diploma in the 1950s in art education at Goldsmiths College, where she met her husband Alexander Plunket Greene, who later helped establish her brand.

Dame Mary was taken on as an apprentice to a milliner before making her own clothes and in 1955 opened Bazaar, a boutique on the Kings Road in Chelsea.

Her far-sighted and creative talents quickly established a unique contribution to British fashion. Among her collection, she is arguably best known for conceiving the mini skirt and hot pants as well as helping to develop the mod style in the 1960s.

Mary married her business partner, Alexander Plunket Greene, grandson of Harry Plunket Greene, in 1957.

They were together until his death in 1990.

The shared one son, Orlando, who was born in 1969.

More to follow…

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