A biography for Mary Quanthasn’t been written yet.
“My garden in England is full of eating-out places, for heat waves, warm September evenings, or lunch on a frosty Christmas morning.”
“The fashionable woman is sexy, witty, and dry-cleaned.”
“My favourite Nice restaurant is in the market. It's open mainly for the market people, and shuts in August.”
“Coco Chanel hated me. I can understand why.”
“Most of my memories of the Sixties are ones of optimism, high spirits and confidence.”
“I don't have birthdays.”
“Fashion is not frivolous. It is a part of being alive today.”
“The Lord's Prayer is the most perfect piece of poetry. I always feel at peace and moved when I recite it.”
“The whole 1960s thing was a ten-year running party, which was lovely. It started at the end of the 1950s and sort of faded a bit when it became muddled with flower power. It was marvelous.”
“The fashionable woman wears clothes. The clothes don't wear her.”
“The real creators of miniskirt are the girls, the same that you seen in the streets.”
“Of course I remember everything I've ever worn.”
“I can't imagine not working, really. I just think work's more fun than fun.”
“London style is individual.”
“Britain has always had more art schools per capita than any other country.”
“Many of my friends are chefs, and I learnt to cook watching them.”
“When I opened my first shop, city gents were still carrying tightly furled umbrellas and wearing bowler hats. It was into this world that I launched my new ideas about fashion.”
“Eating outdoors is a particular passion - that is, eating trestle-table a la nicoise.”
“Of course, I remember when everybody was thin. It wasn't until I went to America in the Sixties that I saw anyone who wasn't skinny thin.”
“I used to start re-arranging my school uniform, hitching up my skirt to be more exciting-looking.”