Iconic 60s fashion designer Mary Quant has died. She was aged 93.
Her family said in a statement she died peacefully at her home in Surrey.
It added:
“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.”
Dame Mary became world renowned after producing the “mini-skirt” – a design that encapsulated the Swinging Sixties.
She was the first winner of the Dress of the Year Award in 1963.
She was given an OBE three years later for her contribution to the fashion industry.
Sporting her equally famous Mary Quant hair-cut – designed by life-long friend Vidal Sassoon – she arrived at Buckingham Palace in a cream wool jersey mini-dress with blue facings.
She was made a Dame in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to British fashion by the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Tributes came from from the fashion world.
Former 60s model Twiggy said:
“Her clothes were very short and very subtle.
The shoes were flat so you could run and dance in them.
“In fact, all the clothes were very simple, but put together they created a very strong look that said somehow, ‘Look at me, isn’t life marvellous?’”
Alexandra Shulman, former editor in chief of British Vogue, told The Sun said:
“She was one of the truly influential figures in fashion and defined the way women thought about themselves.
“Her influence on both fashion and women’s liberation cannot be underestimated.
“Her sleek, simple designs were a million miles from the kinds of shapes and costumes women were wearing in the 1950s.
“As well as short skirts, she had low-heeled pumps rather than high heels and her clothes entice you to behave in a different way after the formality of the past.
“Her clothes reflect the way the social changes of the 1960s, with young women taking the pill and working more.
“She was also one of the first designers who realised she was able to roll out a make-up brand.”