News about Mary Quant

As hundreds descended on Carriageworks in Sydney's inner-west throughout the week, it was people-watching at its finest with a parade of some of the country's most fashionable strutting their stuff. Outfits varied from simple and chic to downright bizarre but there were some new styles and accessories seen everywhere providing a preview as to what's going to be the next big thing. As fashion week wraps up for 2024, FEMAIL takes a look at the trends that dominated both on the runways and through the crowds.

A gin and tonic is not what you'd imagine a person to be sipping on their deathbed. But then Dame Shirley Conran was never ordinary. In fact, the last time we met, she described herself as a 'maverick'. She was the very definition of the word: unconventional, independent, someone who does not think or behave the same way as other people. As a result, she leaves the world a better place - particularly for women. 'You can put that bit in about the gin and tonic,' she told me, before explaining that she couldn't hold down water and this was the only thing she could stomach - along with crushed ice cubes. 'Normally one gin and tonic would be enough to have me under the table,' she said, with a wry smile. 'But not now. I only wish it would!'

On the spring/summer catwalks, missoni's tangerine orange to Burberry's pillar-box red, there was barely a bare leg to be seen. Some of our favourite looks (see Sergio Hudson, Zimmermann, and Acne) were vibrant colour-matching with tights that blended with the rest of the outfit, while others (Givenchy, The Attico) embraced bold colour blocking in mismatched hues.

Lauren Ahmed, a woman from Ohio, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to ask what their top pet peeves about the younger generations are. Boomer's, who were born between 1946 and 1964, returned to full force, with hundreds of people protesting the introduction of millennials and Generation Z's introduced societal changes. (Stock image)

Carolyn Creel is the first to admit to having a wonderful life. The 57-year-old businesswoman lives in a stunning house, drives a sports car, and takes holidays in New York, Las Vegas, and France's South. These are the spoils of a multi-million-pound cleaning company that she's developed over two decades. Her hard-won triumph is all the more impressive considering that she started out with nothing. 'I'd just been divorced, and I was a single mother of one,' she says. I was working as a cleaner for a national cleaning company when a colleague and I decided to start on our own: we started with no employees, doing everything ourselves, and grew to a team of 450 workers.' So far, so inspiring. Carolyn may be able to explain her triumph to sheer graft, natural business acumen, and the odd stroke of chance. However, she cites something much more surprising: her astrological chart.

Baby boomers' number one complaint is banning old music due to their lyrics (right, Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls, who were recently removed from their greatest hits album). According to new reports, drivers were compelled to pay for parking on an app, bank branches closing (Barlcays recently announced that they are closing branches) and not being able to locate a doctor's appointment was among the top niggles for over 50s. Boom Radio, the nation's largest radio station aimed at baby boomers, conducted the survey, asking hundreds of thousands of its 531,000 weekly listeners about their pet peeves. Respondents were asked 31 questions and offered the option of either "very annoying" or "quite irritating," as answers were given. Lack of access to public loos was another common gripe (bottom right)

During the barmy September day, the vibrant festival goers returned to 'good old days' on the Goodwood Motor Circuit in Chichester. The three-day spectacle, which was introduced in 1998 to commemorate mid-20th century motorsport, has remained virtually unchanged since, with wheel-to-wheel racing in classic automobiles surrounded by the 1940s, 1950s, and 60s' fashion and feel. 'We revisit a time when people will treasure their clothes, cars, and other treasures for a lifetime of use,' according to the Goodwood website.'

Goldsmiths, University of London

Twiggy, a Sixties icon who died gracefully, stars in a new film and a musical charting her remarkable life. She has never gone under the knife like many others in the public eye. 'I'm really proud of my wrinkles,' she says. I know when people have little tweaks and maybe I'll even do it, but I'm not sure.' But what I don't think I'd ever do is the stuff they inject when they get those funny cheeks that look like cotton wool balls have been stuffed in them. It would frighten me.'

The late Queen's rainbow-hued umbrella set from purple and pink to blue, green, and every shade in between, and her Anello and Davide block heels and Launer handbags were as much a part of the royal wardrobe as her Anello and Davide block heels and Launer handbags. Never the type of person to let a spot of rain discourage her, but the sight of the much-loved monarch clutching a dome-shaped canopy of clear plastic, co-ordinating flawlessly with whatever she was wearing at the time posed a charmingly familiar portrait.

SHIRLEY CONRAN: Last week, I received the phone call I had been anticipating. I thought I was supposed to be preparing for it, but then it happened, and I discovered I wasn't prepared for how it felt. As if an arm had been pulled off without anaesthetic, it was as if it had been removed from the body. Mary Quant (pictured), my best friend, had been sick for some time before she died on Thursday, April 13, at the age of 93. It was on the front page of all the newspapers. I told her son, Orlando,: 'She may have liked that; she may have been secretly smiling.' 'Yes, she will,' he said.' Mary introduced the world to mini-skirts and hotpants; her 1950s conservative silhouette; and in with clothes, you could turn cartwheels in. Coco Chanel was the most influential fashion designer since Coco Chanel. But she was also my dearest friend - I was closer to her than I was to my two sisters.

HARDCASTLE HARDCASTLE: When King Charles told Downing Street that he wanted to give the best Coronation seats in the stands near Buckingham Palace to NHS workers, he was advised to postpone any announcement until a peace agreement with the struggling Royal College of Nursing. Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, who is in charge of constructing the stands, broke the good news only to see the wage agreement rejected in a vote. Strikes have returned to the United States. Courtiers are concerned that if the monarch and his queen pass in their carriage, they will face irate Florence Nightingales waving banners demanding more money.

AMANDA PLATELL: Now we know why Prince Harry held out for so long before accepting his invitation to the Coronation. He was sorely worried about his responsibilities to King and country that he was obsessed with the seating scheme. He wanted to know who he and Meghan were if she deigned to attend, would sit behind, and who would be in front of them. What arrogance to refuse to say whether they were coming or not until the last minute. How rude it is to miss a response by the RSVP deadline.

The peaceful death of Mary Quant at the age of 93 should also be a reason to commemorate her life as a great British fashion designer who changed the way women looked and, in doing so, transformed London into the Swing Sixties' beating heart. But Quant's story began long before she was born, for she was a style visionary whose instinctive talent spawned everything from miniskirts and hot pants to skinny-rib jumpers and colorful tights. Many of Quant's most popular designs now look as good as they did when she first started out as a designer in the 1950s. In her prewar London childhood, she and her mother figured out the source of the inimitable Quant style. Quant's autobiography, which was published in 2012, portrayed another child with bobbed hair, wearing a black skinny-rib jacket, seven inches of black pleated skirt, black tights under black ankle socks, and black patent shoes.' It was this youthful 'vision of chic' that would inspire her future designs.

Asos, a retailer, has reported that its sales have increased by more than a third in the last four months. M&S claims to have seen a 43 percent increase in mini skirt sales this year over the past year. Despite being in direct contrast to a belief we've long adhered to: the Hemline Index. The theory, which was born in the 1920s, holds that skirt lengths are closely linked to the current economic times. Our hemlines become as long as our faces when times are tough. Nonetheless, in times of economic revival, they rise at a rate that our bank balances are growing at the same rate.

FEMAIL reveals how Sir Terence Conran's possessions went up for auction in London. Sir Terence, the designer of Habitat, introduced Scandinavian style and simplicity to London in the 1960s (inset). However, despite being regarded as a 'visionary,' he was also a "creative, mean, exhaust, lazy, intolerant, fat' with a complicated private life (left, with second wife Shirley, center), at an event to honor Prince Philip's contribution to design (right, with his fourth wife Vicki).

SHIRLEY CONRAN: My mother told me that having money was rude for a woman. We were middle-class with no financial worries - my father had a dry-cleaning business, but she didn't have to give my two sisters or me pocket money. Husbands didn't want wives who were too concerned about financial matters. I realized this was just another way of keeping women short of money – and therefore power – as I grew up; it sparked a rash of anger in me that persists today; in the week of my 90th birthday, the topic of women and wealth has me fuming; My campaigning spirit is as good as when I led a flaming, torchlit march of 700 women to No. 10 in 1969, demanding equal pay. The Equal Pay Act of 1970 was the result. I spent 30 years learning about money; two years in post-divorce penury; 20 years on a single overarching cause - improving women's lives. I want women to get richer and stay richer. Some may find this objectionable; we are also allergic to the idea of women earning a lot of money.