Mary Quant Fashion Revolutionary

Mary Quant

Clothing is a language, and never has that been truer than today. Consider Mary Quant, the revolutionary British fashion designer of the Beatles era. This year, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London has a major exhibit on Quant, inventor of the miniskirt and hot pants and a major popularizer of trousers on women. The focus of the exhibit is revolution, liberation from biblical morality, and breaking down the barriers between the sexes (unisex, androgyny). There is no attempt to hide this. Quant put women in men’s attire: pants, ties, suit jackets, and short hair. One display, entitled “Boys Will Be Girls,” says that Quant “subverted menswear.” “Trousers are considered inappropriate for women [but] Quant wears them anywhere she wants.” Mary Quant knew that trousers on women in modern Western society is not an issue merely of comfort and freedom of movement. Following are some other quotes from the exhibition signage: “using fashion to question hierarchies and gender rules,” “a rebellious approach to established gender norms,” “mocking religion,” “an independent style,” “self-expression,” “freedom.” “The miniskirt became an international symbol of women’s liberation.” “[Quant’s] provocative styles reflected increasingly relaxed attitudes in society towards sexuality in all its forms, reinforced legally by the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967.” Quant also broke down barriers between ages, dressing women in girl’s fashions. She said, “I didn’t want to grow up.” The 1960s was a major changing of the times, and the moral revolution was driven by a technological revolution. It was the dawn of the era of color television, color printing, international mass marketing, and global merchandising empires. Why were Quant’s fashions so popular? Why does a Quant exhibit at a major art museum draw thousands of eager visitors? She helped create the modern ME culture, the “lovers of their own selves” generation prophesied in 2 Timothy 3:2. The music, the fashion, the entertainment, the commerce, everything broadcasts the message, “It’s your life; live as you please!” and fallen man has loved that message ever since Mamma Eve believed the devil’s tale, “Ye shall be as gods.” It’s all a terrible lie. No one gives himself life. We own nothing; we are God’s creatures in God’s world. “Behold, all souls are mine ... the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). The Good News is that an atonement is available in Jesus Christ to fully satisfy my sin debt against God and I can be saved, but the Bad News is that if I die without Christ I will spend eternity settling an account with God that will never be settled.

(Friday Church News Notes, August 23, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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