"58% Don't Want Pershing" t-shirt

The "58% Don't Want Pershing" t-shirt was a t-shirt worn by the fashion designer Katharine Hamnett as a protest to a reception at 10 Downing Street in March 1984 to celebrate the inaugural London Fashion Week. Hamnett was photographed wearing the t-shirt as she met the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher at the reception.[1]

Background

Hamnett knew that the reception would be a powerful photo opportunity and so created the t-shirt in anticipation of meeting Thatcher.[1] She has said that her fellow young fashion designers hated Thatcher "for everything she had done to the UK" with her friend fellow designer Jasper Conran saying, "Why should I go and share a glass of white wine with that murderess?".[1]

The t-shirt

Hamnett created the t-shirt in her office a few hours before the reception. The actual t-shirt used had been made by another designer prior to Hamnett's application of the text.[2] She felt that the t-shirt looked good when photographed but was "hideous in the flesh" as the lettering was laid out in Letraset and then exposed onto photosensitive linen.[3] The slogan refers to an opinion poll of Europeans about the siting of the American nuclear MGM-31 Pershing missile in Europe. Hamnett felt that "Wearing that on a T-shirt was the best thing I could think of at the time".[1] The typeface for the t-shirt was taken from The Sun newspaper, chosen for its visibility.[2]

Protest and aftermath

She wore the t-shirt under her jacket and refused to take her jacket off at her arrival at 10 Downing Street, claiming she was cold.[1] After lining up with the other designers she opened her jacket to reveal the t-shirt as she shook Thatcher's hand.[1] Hamnett said the press photographers "went crazy with their flashbulbs". Thatcher said to Hamnett "You seem to be wearing a rather strong message on your T-shirt" and "let out a squawk, like a chicken" after reading it.[1] Thatcher was also reported to have exclaimed "At last we have an original" after seeing the t-shirt.[4] Hamnett subsequently followed Thatcher around the cocktail reception trying to speak to her about "the huge problem of acid rain in Scandinavia as a result of coal burning" but Thatcher repeatedly evaded her "like a game of cat and mouse".[1] At the end of the evening Hamnett was the last attendee in the room with Thatcher who finally told her that "I am a scientist and I don't know what causes acid rain".[3] Following the reception Hamnett went to a party at Conran's house where her friends cheered her arrival as they had seen her meeting Thatcher on television that night.[3]

Dazed magazine described the protest as "embedded in culture way beyond fashion".[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Katharine Hamnett: the protest T-shirts you see today tend to be a bit namby-pamby". The Guardian. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  2. ^ a b Bolton, Andrew; Hell, Richard; Lydon, John; Savage, Jon (2013-05-15). Punk. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-300-19185-1.
  3. ^ a b c Newbold, Alice (24 September 2024). ""We Were Complete Amateurs!" Katharine Hamnett On What The First LFW Was Really Like". Vogue (magazine). Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  4. ^ Luther, Marylou (23 March 1984). "Even Thatcher gets into London fashion act". The Los Angeles Times (via The Jersey Journal). Retrieved 2 January 2026.
  5. ^ "Anti-Thatcher moments". Dazed (magazine). Retrieved 1 January 2026.
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