Mary Quant, the British designer who made the miniskirt fashionable, has died aged 93.

A statement from her family to the PA news agency said she “died peacefully at home in Surrey, UK this morning”.

Her family said she “was one of the most internationally recognised fashion designers of the 20th century and an outstanding innovator of the Swinging Sixties”.

During the 1960s Quant became a poster girl for London’s Youthquake. Although she is often miscredited as the inventor, she undoubtably made the miniskirt the ‘it’ clothing item for a new generation of young women. With her Vidal Sassoon haircut and burgeoning reputation as the figurehead for Swinging London, she was frequently photographed and was almost always wearing a mini – including on the occasion of receiving her OBE in 1966. Quant did far more than wear miniskirts – she designed them too.

She was at the vanguard of the 60s shift in fashion, one that put youth centre stage for the first time. Her clothes were bright, colourful, comfortable and simple, taking inspiration from subcultures such as the mods as well as school uniforms. While they were not cheap – a pinafore dress cost six guineas in 1963, the equivalent of just over £100 – her clothes were more affordable than those made by designer brands.

They appealed to a new generation of young women with jobs, and more disposable income to spend on clothes. The designer summed up the decade’s new mood, writing in her bestselling 1966 autobiography Quant by Quant that “the young were essentially tired of wearing the same as their mothers”.

A post on the Twitter account of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which recently hosted an exhibition about Quant’s designs, said: “It’s impossible to overstate Quant’s contribution to fashion. She represented the joyful freedom of 1960s fashion, and provided a new role model for young women. Fashion today owes so much to her trailblazing vision.

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