Miniskirt no consensus as to who designed it first. Valerie Steele has noted that the claim that Quant was first is more convincingly supported by evidence than the equivalent Courrèges claim. However, the contemporary fashion journalist Marit Allen, who edited the influential "Young Ideas" pages for UK "Vogue", firmly stated that the British designer John Bates was the first to offer fashionable miniskirts. Other designers, including Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent, had also been raising hemlines at the same time. The miniskirt is one of the garments most widely associated with Mary Quant. Quant herself is ambivalent about the claim
Robert Welch (designer) and receptive, and somehow things just happen.” Robert Welch 1962 Elected FSIA (Fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists) 1965 Elected RDI (Royal Designer for Industry) – a faculty within the Royal Society of Arts 1979 Awarded MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) "Dates denote year/s of design, year of first production may be later" 1956 "Campden" tableware and cutlery range, named after Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire where his studio was based. The cutlery was jointly designed with David Mellor. The "Campden" toast rack won a Design Centre Award in 1957. 1957–1960 "Oriana" tableware and cutlery