Dame Mary Quant, famed for the miniskirt, left £2.9m to son in will

A fashion icon, who popularised the miniskirt in the 1960s, left £2.9million to her son in her will, it has been revealed. 

Dame Mary Quant, the trailblazing British designer who died aged 93 in April last year, left almost everything she had made from her style empire to her son Orlando.

The south-east London icon 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.

Her will, which was written in 2008, said £50,000 should go to her younger brother Tony, while the rest is placed in trust for her son Orlando and her three grandchildren. 

Dame Mary Quant , the trailblazing British designer who died aged 93 in April last year, left almost everything she had made from her style empire to her son Orlando

Her will, which was written in 2008, said £50,000 should go to her younger brother Tony, while the rest is placed in trust for her son Orlando (left) 

Dame Mary raised hemlines to audacious heights, spearheaded sack dresses and turned women’s trousers and tights into wardrobe staples. Pictured fitting and making final adjustments to a zip up mini dress

Born in 1930, she studied at Goldsmiths, in London, before opening her first boutique, Bazaar, in Chelsea in 1955

Dame Mary 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. 

Born in 1930, she studied at Goldsmiths, in London, before opening her first boutique, Bazaar, in Chelsea in 1955.

Her signature look-a daringly short hemline paired with bold colours and clean lines-became a global phenomenon, while she also popularised the ‘bob’ haircut.

Sleeveless shift dresses, PVC raincoats, Peter Pan collars, skinny-rib sweaters, block-coloured tights and jumpsuits were also among Dame Mary’s other revolutionary designs.

Inspired by the streamlined designs of Coco Chanel and the flappers of the 1920s, Quant paired short tunic dresses with tights in ochre, plum, ginger and grape, creating a high-fashion version of outfits she’d worn as a child.

A revolution was going on in music, film, food and theatre, but it was Mary, a self-taught designer, who defined the look.

So that ordinary working women could afford her clothes, Quant also created the cheaper diffusion line, Ginger Group, in 1963, sold in department stores around the country. As many as 7million women had at least one of her designs in their wardrobes, with more still wearing her cosmetics range. 

So that ordinary working women could afford her clothes, Quant also created the cheaper diffusion line, Ginger Group, in 1963, sold in department stores around the country

Orlando during the plaque unveiling on the King’s Road during London Fashion Week to commemorate the legendary fashion designer’s first store

Mary Quant is pictured at home with her husband Alexander Plunket Greene at her flat off King’s Road, Chelsea, in London in 1967

Model Jackie Bowyer swings on a lamppost wearing a black oilskin wet-weather outfit from Mary Quant, of matching coat and hat with shiny, high-heeled boots, London, 15th October 1963

In 2014, Dame Mary, who named the miniskirt after her favourite make of car, recalled its ‘feeling of freedom and liberation’

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”.’

And it was Bazaar, Quant’s small shop in the heart of the bohemian King’s Road, that became the heart of London’s ‘Swinging Chelsea’ and became the foundation for what would become an international fashion empire.

Her ‘Chelsea look’, with short skirts at its heart, went mainstream thanks in part to Quant’s partnership with Twiggy, Britain’s first supermodel.

Her clothes were also popularised by Jean Shrimpton, Pattie Boyd and Cilla Black.

Quant, who was made a Dame in 2015 for her services to British fashion, lived the final years of her life in the village of Albury, near Guildford.

 The Blackheath-born fashionista, the daughter of Welsh teachers, began designing in the 1950s, and her distinctive style began to blossom in an era of increased freedom with the birth of Swinging London.