Mary Quant, designer who epitomized Swinging 60s, dies at 93

April 13, 2023  -LONDON (AP) — Mary Quant, the visionary fashion designer whose colorful, sexy miniskirts epitomized Swinging London in the 1960s and influenced youth culture around the world, has died. She was 93.

Quant’s family said she died “peacefully at home” in Surrey, southern England, on Thursday.

Quant helped popularize the miniskirt — some credit her with inventing it — and the innovative tights that went along with it, creating dresses and accessories that were an integral part of the look. She created mix-and-match, simple garments that had an element of whimsy. Some compared her impact on the fashion world to the Beatles’ impact on pop music.

“I think it was a happy confluence of events, which is really what fashion is so often all about,” said Hamish Bowles, international editor at large for American Vogue magazine. “She was the right person with the right sensibility in the right place at the right time. She appeared on the scene at the exact cusp of the ’60s.”