THE ICONIC WOMAN BEHIND THE MINI SKIRT: social class and sexual liberation

The mini skirt, an everyday iconic worn item of clothing, but do you know how it came about and what really does it represent?

MARY QUANT. daisydodsworth

Well, it all started in the 1960s with a very iconic women named MARY QUANT. Mary was born in 1930 to her Welsh parents, who as a family, moved to London after success in their teaching career. Mary studied illustration at gold smiths’ collage after her parents’ refusal to allow her to attend a fashion course.

"The whole point of fashion is to make fashionable clothes available to everyone."

Mary Quant

Which lead her to then taking an apprentice job athigh-end milliner, Erik of Brook Street, a hat shop. Mary served her regular customers, people who would only wear these handmade insanely expensive hats once (which can I say is not very sustainable, I know Mary would agree), she decided she wanted fashion to be for people of all social classes and that social class shouldn’t limit our ability to express ourselves through fashion.

This is an interesting factor to me as it really links the political side of societies’ class inequalities at the time, when history describes the 50s/60s as the time of post war cheer and the new launch of fashion and wealth they commonly gloss over the huge social class experience gap which was so prominent between the classes.

Her husband who she met at Goldsmiths and herself purchased their own shop which they called Bazaar in1955 where Mary could sell and stock her own designs to anyone and everyone. This took off and lead to mass success across London attracting costumers due to its modernist look and breath of fresh air. Mary took risks and this intrigued the women of the late 50s when the first wave of female sexual liberation came into play. The success led to the opening of a second and then third Bazaar shop.

Once the 60s where in full swing and Mary had brought out many crowd stopping ranges such as her line of men's cardigans long enough to wear as dresses, and white plastic collars used to brighten up sweaters and dresses. She is too credited for the mini skirt which soon became her trademark and perfectly paired with Quant's tights and underwear range, as well as her strong stand for sexual liberation and overall, just female empowerment. The mini skirt was a show stopping piece that was a huge risk and suffered a lot of controversy, putting women who dared to wear it at risk of verbal and physical violence.

Society was so scared to welcome the new powerhouse attitude for women because society realised that with enough liberated women it would be very hard to stop them and would simply force change. Metaphorically shortening that crop of a skirt is not only physically freeing and more room to move but that they can now kick up a fight, literally, but also through taking a stand and making a drastic change in their wardrobe. Whereas in the past women were not only politically, sexually, and verbally constricted they were also constricted by the long skirt. Especially for women in the working class, fashion was never even accessible for them to even express any identity so with Quants mini skirt it allowed for the lower class to make a visual stance.

This too comes with no coincidence hand in hand with all class access to contraception. This is the first time in history when women can have a choice about their bodies through their sexual liberation in fashion and pollical changes. So, to Mary Quant on behalf of the sexually and politically liberated women, Thank you.

Next time you slip on your mini skirt remember the story behind it and feel proud of how far we have come, and now to make it socially acceptable for people of all identities to feel pride, sexy and active in our miniskirts.

DAISY D.