1960 London Fashion Week: Mary Quant Might Blow Your Brains Out

The freshly painted interior to the cabin looked like a murder scene by the time Mary Quant was done with it, for the sake of fashion. After debuting the iconic mini skirt and seemingly changing the name of fashion forever, Quant yet again proved her worth in her unruly fall runway. Short skirts to the heavens graced our presence again, this time in bright plaids and polka dots, paired with knee high cowboy boots and longshot rifles. Supposedly an ode to Quant’s love of hunting, mini skirt clad models dancing playfully upon tables juxtaposed nicely to the shiny, oversized, phallic killing machines. The models wore bright, giggling smiles through the whole show, proving to be living in Quant’s world, unabashedly unaware of us plebeians and conservative dressers. This was only further proven when one model walked out with a freshly dead pheasant. She posed with the limp thing, its neck clenched between her frail fingers, before she raised it above her head and swung its body around as she danced. Blood splattered across the cabin walls, drenching the critics and journalists seated up front as they fought the impulse of their jaws dropping in hopes to keep the pheasant blood out of their mouths. The models continued to dance in their now bloodied clothes, seemingly unbothered by anything in this world, certainly not a bit of blood on a brand new line of runway clothes.

The impressive nature of Quant and this runway specifically was not necessarily in the clothes themselves this time. I look through my notes from the runway, and I can barely make out anything under the now dried blood, and maybe that was the point. Maybe the genius of this Fall’s runway for Quant was not so much in new designs, but the idea and theatrics she is selling as a whole. This runway wasn’t as much of a spectatorial event as it was an experience, a glimpse into what it means to be a Quant girl. A Quant girl embodies youth, femininity, and the freedom of the future for women. She might be in a mini skirt up on a bar but she can provide food for herself and she can blow your head off. These girls couldn’t care less about the critics and it couldn’t be more clear, showing Quant is able to see the power in 20 something women.