Mary Quant
Skirts had been getting shorter since about 1958 – a development Mary Quant thought was practical and liberating, allowing women to run for a bus. The miniskirt, which she is most famous for, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s. The miniskirt was also developed separately by André Courrèges and John Bates, and there is disagreement as to who came up with the idea first. Like most fashion, the short- and ever-shorter skirt was evolving already among fashion-minded young women: the designers who adapted it just helped spread the style and, in Quant's case, gave it a name. Mary Quant named the miniskirt after her favourite make of car, the Mini. She loved the car so much, she had one designed especially for her.