British designer Mary Quant, best known for being the "mother of the miniskirt", has died at the age of 93.
In a statement released by her family, we read that she passed away peacefully this morning at her home in Surrey.
Thanks to Quant, in the second half of the 1900s, women's clothing spread all over the world.
If the French Gabrielle Coco Chanel is credited with having put pants on the ladies, in the first half of the last century, the British Mary Quant, born on February 11, 1930, the world recognizes that she was the "mother of the miniskirt", of having spread in the second half of the 20th century the female garment most loved by girls of all latitudes by having it worn by a 17-year-old hairdresser, Leslie Hornby, known as Twiggy (breadstick), forerunner of the teenage top models.
Yes, because the invention of that small strip of fabric that reached mid-thigh and beyond and that was obligatorily worn with high boots and tights, also just invented in place of stockings with garters, is instead attributed to André Courrèges, who in 1964 he had presented short A-line dresses in Paris, and therefore had claimed the paternity of the miniskirt.
But, "The real creators of the mini are the girls, the same ones you see on the street" Mary Quant liked to say who actually had also had the merit of having shortened them to the limits of decency.
Even today the miniskirt is a much-loved and generally accepted look by girls.
In the early 1960s the company was still very 'bigoted' when it came to costumes.
Sixty-eight will arrive with its revolutionary social charge and will bring free love, contraceptive pills, long hair for the "flower children", jeans and miniskirts for the girls.
Barbara Mary Quant was born in Blackheath on February 11, 1934, in a suburb of London.
Her parents are two Welsh professors who teach at London University.
For their beloved daughter they dream of a peaceful future as a teacher.
Instead for her Mary who studies at Goldsmiths College, that life is unbearable, she and her sixteen years she decides to leave home to live in London.
Here she meets Alexander Plunket Greene, scion of a noble English family and nephew of Bertrand Russell, who is also eager for freedom.
The two begin a bohemian life: they eat when they have money, they travel as they can, they dress as they wish.
Mary has a fondness for short skirts and ankle boots, Alexander suits.
The two befriend a former lawyer turned photographer, Archie McNair,
and when Alexander inherits some money for his twenty-first birthday, they decide, with McNair's help, to buy a house.
In the basement they open a restaurant and on the first floor the Bazaar boutique (1955).
The boutique located on London's Kings Road was an instant hit with young Britons and beyond.
Finally, the young people of the breaking generation have found someone who thinks like them, who lives like them and who understands what they might like.
The young people of the most conformist country in Europe, Great Britain, are the first to feel the need for changes which, in order to break with tradition and gain attention, must necessarily be extreme.
The break with the old world is represented by long hair for boys, short skirts for girls and the music of the Beatles.
At first, Londoners laugh at Mary's boutique and at the folkloric group of young people who frequent it, but then curiosity attracts people from the world of cinema, theater and art.
The money arrives and Mary, who has meanwhile married Alexander, opens another shop on posh Brompton Road in Knightsbridge.
An icon of Swinging London she will also be a brilliant entrepreneur: she founded the "Ginger Group" in 1963 to export her products to the USA, she will launch a line of cosmetics in 1966 and a footwear collection in 1967. In 1966, Mary Quant receives from the hands of the queen Elizabeth, the honor of Knight of the British Crown, which the year before had been given to his idols: the Beatles.
The writer Bernard Levin will define her "High Priestess of Sixties fashion", the high priestess of the fashion of the sixties.
honor of Knight of the British Crown, which the year before had been given to his idols: the Beatles.
The writer Bernard Levin will define her "High Priestess of Sixties fashion", the high priestess of the fashion of the sixties.
honor of Knight of the British Crown, which the year before had been given to his idols: the Beatles.
The writer Bernard Levin will define her "High Priestess of Sixties fashion", the high priestess of the fashion of the sixties.