Fashion designer and champion of the miniskirt Dame Mary Quant dies aged 93

13 April 2023, 13:06 | Updated: 13 April 2023, 14:06

Fashion designer Dame Mary Quant has died aged 93, her family has announced.

A statement from her family said she "died peacefully at home in Surrey, UK this morning".

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."

The designer was perhaps best known for her work with miniskirts which became one of the iconic 60s fashion staples.

Read More: John Lewis looks to ‘tween’ market as it expands children’s fashion business

The style was also innovated by Dame Mary who is credited for being among the first to pair patterned or coloured tights with the garb.

Dame Mary was the first winner of the Dress of the Year Award in 1963, and was honoured with an OBE three years later in 1966 for her contribution to the fashion industry - arriving to Buckingham Palace to accept the gong in a cream wool jersey minidress 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 - and most recently being appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the New Year Honours earlier this year.

Dame Mary is survived by her son Orlando, who she shared with her late husband Alexander Plunket Greene who died in 1990 after their 1953 marriage.

Born in south-east 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 Goldsmith's College, where she met her husband Alexander Plunket Greene, who later helped establish her brand, he died in 1990.

The designer is survived by her son Orlando, three grandchildren and her brother Tony Quant.

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 King's Road in Chelsea.

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.

Among her collection, she is arguably best known for conceiving the mini skirt as well as helping to develop the mod style in the 1960s.

She began experimenting with shorter hemlines in the late 1950s, culminating in the creation of one of the defining fashions of the following decade.