With the trademark five-point Vidal Sassoon haircut and fitted hemlines, Mary Quant was the first designer to offer youthful collections to the general public and, by doing so, firmly placed London on the fashion map. A graduate in illustration from Goldsmiths College, Quant was a self-taught fashion designer who, in 1955, opened her first store, Bazaar, at 138a King's Road. One of the early followers of the Chelsea beatnik set and its monochrome look, which used Italian sportswear and clean, functional lines adored by dancers, Quant wanted "comfortable clothes, ideal for everyday activities." Her goal was female empowerment through fashion and, unlike the more established fashion designers of that era, she created clothes for contemporary women and wore them herself.

In the early years of Bazaar, Quant adopted a remarkable, precarious business model where sales from the store went towards purchasing fabrics, which were then turned into new stock overnight. Despite the stressful cycle of continuous production, Quant realized that by working this way, she could constantly offer her customers something new and exciting at competitive prices, thanks to.