Farewell to Dame Mary Quant: Family and friends gather for memorial service of Brit fashion icon who pioneered block-colour tights, PVC and Vidal Sassoon’s bob haircut – after her death aged 93
- Dame Mary Quant died at home in Surrey on April 13 this year at the age of 93
The family and friends of Dame Mary Quant gathered for a memorial service for the British fashion icon after her death aged 93.
Dame Mary, who passed away at her home in Surrey on April 13 this year, pioneered block-colour tights, PVC and Vidal Sassoon’s bob haircut – wishing to add ‘a touch of fun and colour into people’s lives’.
A memorial service for the queen of Swinging Sixties fashion took place at 3pm today at The Chapel Royal Hampton Court Palace in Molesey.
Guests in attendance included fellow British designer Jasper Conran, 63, a friend of Dame Mary who described her as ‘one of the most important British designers ever’ following her death.
Mr Conran, who has worked on collections of womenswear, looked stylish as he attended the memorial in white trousers, a dark suit jacket, a stripy top and red neckerchief.
The family and friends of Dame Mary Quant (pictured) gathered for a memorial service for the British fashion icon after her death in April aged 93
Guests included fellow British designer Jasper Conran, 63, (right) a friend of Dame Mary who described her as ‘one of the most important British designers ever’ following her death
Mr Conran looked stylish as he attended the memorial in white trousers, a dark suit jacket, a stripy top and red neckerchief
Some guests reflected Dame Mary’s love of colour and fun as they wore bright clothing, with fashion designer Zandra Rhodes donning a black cherry headband (pictured)
Crowds of people attended the memorial service today to remember the fashion icon
The memorial service for Dame Mary took place at 3pm today at The Chapel Royal Hampton Court Palace in Molesey
Friends and family attended the memorial for the queen of Swinging Sixties fashion, who died in April this year
Other guests nodded to the late designer’s love of colour and fun as they wore bright clothing and quirky accessories, with fashion designer Zandra Rhodes sporting a black cherry headband.
Dame Mary had planned her funeral more than a decade ago and wanted her ashes scattered in the garden of the Surrey home she shared with her beloved late husband, MailOnline previously revealed.
The icon said that her great friend Vidal Sassoon’s funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral had been the ‘perfect’ service for music and readings, but she wished for something more low key.
Dame Mary said in 2012, aged 82: ‘I’ll be happy with a small, private funeral at a church near my home. I’d like my ashes scattered in my garden’.
She continued: ‘I don’t like to think about dying because I’m having so much fun’, adding that her ‘pet hate’ was that ‘funerals have to be celebrations’.
‘There seems to be a need these days to be jolly, but whatever happened to sadness? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a bit of wailing’, she said.
Dame Mary was speaking to journalist Rob McGibbon in November 2012 for his Daily Mail column called The Definite Article. The popular Q&A appeared each week in Weekend magazine and always featured the question to a celebrity: ‘The order of service at your funeral…’ and the final question was always ‘The way you want to be remembered’.
When asked about her own legacy, Dame Mary said: ‘As the girl who made clothes and make-up that brought a touch of fun and colour into people’s lives’.
The fashion queen of the 1960 brought the mini skirt and hot pants into daily wear and pioneered affordable fun fashion for young people. Pictured: Mary Quant in Chelsea in 1963
Dame Mary, who passed away on April 23 this year, pioneered block-colour tights, PVC and Vidal Sassoon’s bob haircut
Designer Jasper Conran said about Dame Mary: ‘Mary Quant is, without a doubt, one of the most important British designers ever’
Dame Mary is pictured at home, looking for inspirations as she brainstorms on the floor of her flat in Chelsea in 1968
Dame Mary famously declared she ‘didn’t have time to wait for women’s lib’
People looked both happy and emotional as they attended the memorial service today
The service was held at The Chapel Royal Hampton Court Palace in Molesey
Women wore bright patterns and colours in memory of the fashion icon who died this year
Two men are pictured chatting as they attened the service in memory of Dame Mary Quant
One woman wore bright red shoes and a bright red coat to remember Dame Mary Quant
The icon’s make-up range would also come to be considered as forward-thinking as her clothing
People smiled and enjoyed the day as the remembered the sixties fashion icon
READ MORE: Farewell to the ‘mother of the miniskirt’ who put the Swing into the 60s: Dame Mary Quant dies ‘peacefully at home’ aged 93 as fashion world mourns Brit fashion icon who pioneered block-colour tights, PVC – and Vidal Sassoon’s bob haircut
Dame Mary famously declared she ‘didn’t have time to wait for women’s lib’ and so began a fashion revolution to rescue young women of the 1950s and 1960s from being forced to dress like their mothers for another generation.
She raised hemlines to audacious heights, spearheaded sack dresses and turned women’s trousers and tights into wardrobe staples, as well as popularising the bob haircut pioneered by her friend, the hairdresser Vidal Sassoon.
Sleeveless shift dresses, PVC raincoats, Peter Pan collars, skinny-rib sweaters, block-coloured tights and jumpsuits were also among Dame Mary’s revolutionary designs.
Her make-up range would also come to be considered as forward-thinking as her clothing.
In 2014, Dame Mary, who named the miniskirt after her favourite make of car, recalled its ‘feeling of freedom and liberation’.
She said: ‘It was the girls on King’s Road who invented the mini. I was making clothes which would let you run and dance and we would make them the length the customer wanted. I wore them very short and the customers would say, ”shorter, shorter”.’
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