Barbara Mary Quant was born in London, England. From a young age, she was prone to fashion, making her own clothes in her style.
After graduating from Blackheath High School, she wanted to study fashion, but her parents disapproved, so instead, Quant studied illustration and art education at Goldsmiths College, receiving her degree in 1953. That year, she met her future husband and business partner, Alexander Plunket Greene.
After school, Quant apprenticed couture milliner and began to design and manufacture clothes. In 1955, at 25, she opened her first boutique, Bazaar, on Kings Road, and two years later, she opened her second Bazaar store in Knightsbridge.
Within a few years, her bold clothing style caught the attention of both buyers and the media, and in 1962 an American manufacturer purchased some of her dress designs, expanding her brand in Europe and the US.
In her designs, Quant broke the standard styles of the time. She withdrew from the post-war practical clothing and used youth as inspiration, creating mature and sexier versions of the dancing wear of girls, with short pleated skirts, white anklets, and ankle-strap shoes. Although she didn’t invent the silhouette, Quant is best associated with the miniskirt, which she improved and popularized with her designs, wanting to make women clothing less restrictive, allowing them freedom of movement and the feeling of empowerment and liberation. Her version of the short shorts, or hotpants, also became a sensation and was recognized as a British fashion icon.
Her uniqueness and innovation were not only in her designs but also in how she sold them. In her boutiques, Quant played music and offered drinks so people would come and hang out there for hours as if it was a club. Another way she differed herself from the standard department stores and the inaccessible high-class designer stores was by the boutiques’ window displays, placing models in quirky poses, drawing the pass-byers’ attention.
In 1966, at 36, Quant launched Mary Quants Cosmetics, introducing the “paintbox” – a ready-to-use makeup pallet. A few years later, she expanded into household goods and interior and textile design, claiming to invent the duvet.
In 2000, at 70, Quant resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd, and the company was moved under her Japanese licensees’ ownership that has been running it ever since.
In her later years, she resided in Surrey. She died at the age of 93.
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