Inventor of hotpants and mini-skirt makes the cut on British Queen’s honour role

Mary Quant, the 1960s fashion pioneer who the mini-skirt and hotpants, has been made a dame in Britain’s New Year Honours List. The twice-yearly list of the great and the good – issued at the New Year and on the queen’s birthday in June – recognises those who have succeeded in their personal field, or those who have contributed to their community. Quant is one of the women who make up 50 percent of the honours list released Tuesday, recognising her 60-year career in fashion. She opened her first boutique in London’s fashionable Chelsea district in 1955 and became a key figure in the Mod and other youth movements of the 1960s.

The fashionable woman wears clothes; the clothes don’t wear her.

Dame Mary Quant

Other damehoods were given to “English Patient” actress Kristin Scott Thomas, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and children’s campaigner and television presenter Esther Rantzen. Veteran actor John Hurt, who starred as John Merrick in 1980 classic “The Elephant Man”, has been given a knighthood. Actress Emily Watson, who made her name in Lars von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves”, is made an OBE. The oldest recipient was 103-year-old runner and charity supporter Fauja Singh, who received a British Empire Medal (BEM).

Europe honours list