Miniskirt young women to whom they were unrelated, but to oppose it on their own wives and fiancés. In the UK, by shortening the skirts to less than they were classed as children's garments rather than adult clothes. Children's clothing was not subject to purchase tax whereas adult clothing was. The avoidance of tax meant that the price was correspondingly less. Several designers have been credited with the invention of the 1960s miniskirt, most significantly the London-based designer Mary Quant and the Parisian André Courrèges. Although Quant reportedly named the skirt after her favourite make of car, the Mini, there is
Miniskirt not called "mini" until the 1960s. Figurines produced by the Vinča culture (c. 5700–4500 BCE) have been interpreted by archaeologists as representing women in miniskirt-like garments. One of the oldest surviving garments resembling a miniskirt is the short woollen skirt with bronze ornaments worn by the Egtved Girl for her burial in the Nordic Bronze Age (c. 1390–1370 BCE). One of the earliest known cultures where women regularly wore clothing resembling miniskirts was a subgroup of the Miao people of China, the Duan Qun Miao (, literally "short skirt Miao"). In albums produced during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) from the