After Dinner Speakers: Mary Quant, , Peter Keen

As the high priestess of the 1960s Mod cult and the mother of the miniskirt, Mary Quant focused on a fashion philosophy that was simple, direct, and explicit: sex. Understandably, her name is synonymous with '60s swinging culture, a culture that reveled in the sensual body. From "Bazaar," her shop on London's King's Road that opened in 1955, Quant sold clothes and cosmetics that were bold, progressive, and always bearing her trademark five-petaled daisy. Sex appeal was her main priority. Her signature jumpers, ready-to-wear miniskirts and dresses, colored tights, hipster belts, PVC garments, and sleeveless, crocheted tops celebrate the female form through selective exposure and concealment. She teased the eye, tranforming the act of looking into a suggestive, sensual act. Her designs from this period include the one-piece dress made to look like separates, the open-necked jumper sewn to the inset "shirt," and the pocket that snaps open to hold money. Next to sex, the second most important tenet in her fashion philosophy involved the worship of youth. Her fashions were created to compliment the young figure, but she insisted that youth is not measured by chronological age; instead, youth is a style, a frame of mind. The frantic pace of a Quant fashion show, with models racing down catwalks at breakneck speed and showing up to 40 garments in 12 minutes, is indicative of the designer's own frenetic output. Though most famous for her work in the 1960s, Quant still designs today.