A. Greene; Marketed the Miniskirt

Alexander Plunket Greene, who as business manager for his wife, Mary Quant, brought the world the miniskirt in the magic-mushroom days of Twiggy and flower power, has died, his family announced.

Greene, who established the revolutionary boutique on King’s Road in London, where the Beatles came to shop, died Friday in London at age 57. The family announced his death Monday but did not disclose the cause.

Greene and Quant met when they were in their late teens and students at Goldsmiths’ College of Art in southeast London. They married in 1957. Two years earlier, Greene and a friend, lawyer Archie McNair, had opened Bazaar in London’s Chelsea district.

Quant was initially the buyer for the shop. But with her husband’s encouragement, she began to sell her own trend-setting designs.

These included the miniskirt, which became the symbol of Britain’s swinging ‘60s.

The influence of the couple turned King’s Road into a fashion mecca for young Britons.

Crowded with boutiques and chic restaurants, its sidewalks became a perpetual fashion show as young people flocked there to buy the latest styles and be seen wearing them. The styles were widely copied abroad.

The couple opened a second store in the nearby Knightsbridge district of London in 1961, and Greene opened a restaurant in the basement of the original King’s Road store.

In 1963 Greene expanded into the mass market with a new Mary Quant label, Ginger Group, and launched his wife’s designs with considerable success in the United States.

During the 1970s, he expanded the Mary Quant licenses to include items such as bed linens, carpets, swim wear, hosiery and jewelry.