Mary Quant
Quant was instrumental in the mod fashion movement, and is widely credited as the inventor of the miniskirt and of hotpants. While the new styles were certainly meant to be risque and sexy, they also represented growing liberation in women’s fashion–and we owe much of today’s skin-baring styles (and the ever-smaller outfits of Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Ke$ha et al) at least in part to Quant.