Royaldesigners

Mary Quant graduated from Goldsmiths in 1953, with a diploma in illustration. In 1957, she opened a boutique called Bazaar, in the Kings Road, London. By 1963, Quant was exporting to the United States, and the Mary Quant brand was born. Mary sought to make her clothes available to women across all social milieu, helping to pioneer mass-market clothes, and enabling all women to buy into the mood of the moment. Mary experimented with innovative new materials, such as PVC. Her new mini length skirts defined a new level of female empowerment; a look that epitomised the fashion revolution of the 1960s. In the early 1970s, she stopped manufacturing but continued to design. She was awarded an OBE in 1966 and a DBE in 2015. In 2019 an international retrospective of Mary’s work took place at the V&A museum in London.