show biz the bright lights: Mary Quant

Mary Quant, OBE, FCSD (born 11 February 1934 in Blackheath, Kent, England) is a British fashion designer, one of the many designers who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants. Born to Welsh parents, Quant studied illustration at Goldsmiths College before taking a career with a couture milliner. She is also famed for her work on pop art in fashion.

In November 1955, she teamed up with her husband, Alexander Plunkett-Grene, and a former solicitor, Archie Mcnair, to open a clothes shop on the Kings Road in London called Bazaar.

Skirts had been getting shorter since about 1958 – a development Mary Quant considered to be practical and liberating, allowing women the ability to run for a bus. The miniskirt, for which she is arguably most famous, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s. The miniskirt was developed separately by André Courrèges and John Bates. Mary Quant named the miniskirt after her favorite make of car, the Mini; she loved this car so much, she had one designed especially for her. In addition to the miniskirt, Mary Quant is often credited with inventing the colored and patterned tights that tended to accompany the garment, although these are also attributed to Cristobal Balenciaga or John Bates. Quant was one of their major popularisers, largely thanks to the fact that Bazaar was a popular haunt for the fashionable "Chelsea Set" of "Swinging London". By 1961, Quant's popularity was at its height in the mid 1960s, during which time she produced the dangerously short micro-mini skirt, "paint box" make-up, and plastic raincoats. In the late 1960s, Quant popularised hot pants. Through the 1970s and 1980s she concentrated on household goods and make-up, rather than just her clothing lines. In 2000, she resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd., her cosmetics company, after a Japanese buy-out. There are over 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan, where Quant fashions continue to enjoy more popularity.