Quant, Mary

Mary Quant (February 11, 1930-April 13, 2023) attended Goldsmith’s Art College in London. There she met Alexander Plunket Greene. The pair, with the help of lawyer friend Archie McNair, opened a boutique in the Kings Road in London in 1955. They called it “Bazaar” and when they couldn’t find the kinds of youthful clothes they wanted to fill the store, Quant began designing and making them. By the 1960s, “Bazaar” was a smashing success, and Quant’s designs were very much in demand.

Quant started the Ginger Group line in 1963, and soon afterward, J.C. Penney launched a line that she designed for them. In 1965, she was marketed in the US by Puritan manufacturing, as part of their Youthquake promotion. Later that same year, Quant’s designs were sold at Paraphernalia, the New York City boutique started by Puritan.

She branched into cosmetics in 1966, and her line of cosmetics is still manufactured today. Mary Quant was a major player in the youth movement of the early 1960s. By some accounts, she “invented” the mini skirt. By her own admission, she took the style from the girls on the street and popularized it.

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