Mary Quant

Mary Quant, OBE ( born February 11, 1934 in Blackheath, Kent, England) is a British fashion designer. Her parents were teachers in Wales and Quant occupied at Goldsmith 's College of Art, the course of study for art teachers. She learned incidentally pattern to design and then worked for the milliners Erik. In 1955 she opened with her future husband Alexander Plunket Greene ( 1932-1990 ) and a friend, Archie McNair, the boutique Bazaar in Markham House on King's Road in Chelsea, London. They not only sold clothes, they designed their own models soon. A second store was opened in Knightsbridge. In 1963, she launched a cheaper second brand, Ginger Group. She designed clothes for JC Penney at that time also, the largest retail chain in the United States.

As quants important creation applies the miniskirt, whose inventors are also John Bates and André Courrèges counts. The invention of matching patterned and colored tights ( tights ) make her John Bates and Cristobal Balenciaga dispute. Quant named the Mini allegedly by car. They also created a raincoat and flat boots made ​​of PVC, a material that had until then only used as flooring or as a tablecloth. Your PVC fashion, the Wet Collection, was presented in its first Paris show in 1963. Quant launched in 1965 its first two-week tour of America, on their models paraded their fashions in twelve cities. 1966, she was awarded by Queen Elizabeth II of the Order of the British Empire Level Officer.

The model Twiggy made ​​the Mary Quant look in the late sixties the hallmark of an entire generation. She created by their extreme figure and a geometrically smooth cut blow dry a new child- woman type.

Writings

• Quant by Quant. Putnam, 1966 reprint. Cedric Chivers, Bath 1974.