Perhaps a comparison will help to understand the magnitude of the news of the death of the British designer Mary Quant: she had for fashion the importance that The Beatles they had for 20th century pop music.
And this is not an exaggeration: the miniskirt, his most popular invention, gave shape and vertigo to the sexual revolution of the mid-50s and all of the 60s.
Somehow, the designer lit the fuse so that young women did not have to dress in the outfits of their mothers and grandmothers.
Quant was born on February 11, 1934 in London. From very early on, her name was associated with a type of feminine wardrobe that moved away from the rigid cuts of tradition. In addition, she promoted the model of beauty that is the one that prevails today on the catwalks of the world: a very young, thin and tall woman. The first supermodel in that line was Leslie Lawsonremembered by her nickname Twiggy -twig-.
In addition, since then, good clothing has been associated with informality and youth. Quant is one of the leaders of the cultural movement known as “Swinging London” –the London scene– and within which rock was born.
Quant was a student of plastic arts before entering the world of design and costumes. “His fashion of him, inexpensive and extremely young, was a hit from the start. Quant’s dresses, rectilinear and graphically simple, could be worn day and night,” the book reads. Fashion, the century of designers, by Charlotte Seeling.
Although the debate is still open as to whether the miniskirt came from the lines and cuts of Quant or the French André Courrèges, the truth is that the garment materialized a moment in Western culture. “Mary Quant was completely in tune with her time: pantsuits, mini shorts, colored leggings and low belts. Everything she released was in tune with the spirit of the decade,” Seeling continues.
“It turns out that my clothes were exactly the right fit for teen fashion, pop, espresso bars, and jazz clubs,” the dressmaker wrote in Quant by Quant, her first autobiography. Plus, she claimed in 2019, “I was in the right place at the right time.” Something very similar to what was said by Bob Dylan when journalists asked him about writing Like a Rolling Stone.
In the final stretch of her life, Mary Quant did not appear in public. She had a son, Orlando, and three grandchildren. Her relatives affirmed that she passed away “peacefully” in the county of Surrey (south of England).
