Mary Quant
Mary Quant
Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene, DBE, FCSD, RDIis a Welsh fashion designer and British fashion icon...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionFashion Designer
Date of Birth11 February 1934
abandoning car drive family hot insist join july midnight parts streets tables
In the old parts of Nice, the family tables are out in the cobbled streets so that you can't drive past. They insist you join them at midnight on a hot July evening. So that's just what you do, abandoning the car.
moved peace perfect piece poetry recite
The Lord's Prayer is the most perfect piece of poetry. I always feel at peace and moved when I recite it.
divide life mud open social space swinging time village work
I divide my time between all the mud and open space in Surrey and the social life and work in London, particularly Chelsea, which still has the same village feel that it had in the swinging Sixties.
learnt
Many of my friends are chefs, and I learnt to cook watching them.
favourite mainly market
My favourite Nice restaurant is in the market. It's open mainly for the market people, and shuts in August.
half simply
In the first half of the 20th century, fashion was simply not a very English thing to do.
caused designed havoc travelled
I designed the miniskirt that caused so much havoc in the Sixties - the miniskirt that was such fun but has travelled well to today.
bus catch liked work
I liked my skirts short because I wanted to run and catch the bus to get to work.
christmas england full garden heat lunch morning september warm
My garden in England is full of eating-out places, for heat waves, warm September evenings, or lunch on a frosty Christmas morning.
changing finished
I long for my garden to be complete. Working in it is one of my joys, but it will never be finished because it's forever changing with the seasons.
jean left men models walk walking
Jean Shrimpton was the most beautiful of all the models I have known. To walk down the King's Road, Chelsea, with Shrimpton was like walking through the rye. Strong men just keeled over right and left as she strode up the street.
developed loved
I've always loved painting and drawing. I wish I'd developed it more and exhibited.
teachers
As the daughter of two teachers with first-class degrees, I'd always seen myself as a duffer by comparison.
eating la outdoors particular passion
Eating outdoors is a particular passion - that is, eating trestle-table a la nicoise.