The mini skirt was created by English seamstress Mary Quant in the 1960s in London. Quant disliked conservative clothing and opened a boutique selling unconventional, brightly colored designs with shorter hemlines. In 1965, she began manufacturing very short skirts, dubbed "mini skirts," after observing young London girls wearing their dresses even shorter. The mini skirt style spread rapidly from London and became a symbol of youth culture and female empowerment in the 1960s.