TRIBUTE TO MARY QUANT
(1930 – 2023)
2023 JULY ISSUE
Written by Andrew Sia
Illustrated by Elita Lam
From the Desk of the Publisher
Mary Quant passed away on April 13, 2023 at the age of 93 in Surrey, United Kingdom. We remember her mod haircut, eyelashes, miniskirt, raincoats in PVC plastic-coated cotton, plastic boots and she brought the Mod culture into the scene of the U.K. She played a prominent role in London’s Swing Sixties culture. I would call her a nascent feminism of her times.
We have featured Mary Quant in our Fashion Quote in our April 2022 issue. You can find information from there as well.
Mary Quant, the fashion disruptor of the 1960s, died at the age of 93. In 2009, Mary Quant was honored by the Royal Mail with her own postage stamp, featuring a model wearing a black Mary Quant flared mini.
The store front once occupied by a fashion boutique named Bazaar in1955 by Mary Quant and her aristocratic boyfriend, Alexander Plunket Greene. The two married in 1957. Bazaar was on London’s King’s Road, in the heart of Chelsea, now it is a juice bar. Above the store, there is a sign commemorate Dame Mary Quant. She was made a dame in 2015.
The following picture was taken in London in 2009. It was so iconic with the two models in their miniskirts and the Mini Cooper in the King’s Road of Chelsea.
A decade after her shop, Bazaar was opened in King’s Road, Chelsea, Mary Quant was a global brand, with licenses all over the world. You can find Mary Quant line at J.C. Penney and boutiques in New York department stores. You can find Mary Quant makeup for women and men, lingerie, tights, shoes, outerwear and even furs.
She was named an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1966 for her contribution to British exports with a sales reached $20 million. She toured the United States like the Beatles with her fashion collections.
By the 1970s, there were bedsheets, stationery, paint, housewares and even a Mary Quant doll named Daisy.
Because of Bazaar, and because of Mary Quant, King’s Road became the epicenter of British fashion. Mary Quant also became its avatar.
In 2000, Mary Quant stepped down as the director of Mary Quant Ltd., and was bought out.
In the spring of 2019, Victoria & Albert Museum showed her work. A vibrant exhibition of 120 pieces from her heyday and the curators included a montage of photographs and memories from the thousands of women who shared their favorite Mary Quant pieces. Along with tales of how they had worn them in their daily lives as liberated women and became a powerful tribute to Mary Quant’s legacy and the nascent feminism of her times.
She was considered as a leader of the British fashion and also a female entrepreneur. She was recognized as the three icons in the recent fashion scene—Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and Mary Quant.
Last and not the least, in 2012, she was among the British culture icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake in a new version of his most famous artwork—Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover—to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life. It is the biggest collage of his career—measuring approximately 230×80 feet—covered the front façade of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London until the hotel would undergo restoration.
