Mary Quant My Autobiography

Not many names epitomise an era, but Mary quant is such a name. Her life, her ideas, her style touched (and still touch) everyone.

Mary Quant is fashion. She was the revoltuion, the turning point, the yardstick. She broke the mould: young women no longer had to be Daddy's Girl, or the dutiful, acquiescent partner. Mary Quant encouraged them to be themselves in every aspect of their lives, whether sexual, social or professional. As Helen Lazares of Elle magazine once said to her: "You have changed everything."

Most people connect Mary with one thing - the mini skirt - that ground-breaking design that is as potent now as it was when if first appeared in the early sixties. But her influence carried way beyond those early frenetic black-and-white years. Her revolutionary stance, her ability to innovate, her endlessly imaginative eye have been brought to bear on almost every aspect of fashion and design.

Mary Quant's memoir is written in her own inimitable style - a witty, unique account of her whirlwind life, how she started, where she came from, her unconventional, brilliant husband, the battles she's had, the triumphs, the disasters, the models, the photographers, the love of her gardens, the impossibility of her dogs.

It is a story like no other.
But then there is only one Mary Quant.

Mary Quant was born in London in 1934. She trained at Goldsmiths' School of Art where she met her husband Alexander Plunket Greene. They married in 1957. Together with Archie McNair they opened their first shop, Bazaar, in the King's Road: the start of a dazzling career that changed the face of fashion and make-up. Mary has received countless awards and honours, including an OBE in 1966. Three years layer she was made a Fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists and she was also named Royal Designer for Industry. Mary lives in Surrey and has a son, Orlando, and three grandchildren.