Miniskirt
A miniskirt is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than below the buttocks; and a dress with such a hemline is called a minidress or a miniskirt dress. A micro-miniskirt or microskirt is a miniskirt with its hemline at the upper thigh, at or just below crotch or underwear level.
Short skirts had existed for a long time before entering mainstream fashion, though they were generally not called "mini" until they became a fashion trend in the 1960s. Instances of clothing resembling miniskirts have been identified by archaeologists and historians as far back as –1370 BC. In the early 20th century, the banana skirt worn by the dancer Josephine Baker for her mid-1920s performances in the Folies Bergère was subsequently likened to a miniskirt. Extremely short skirts became a staple of 20th-century science fiction, particularly in 1940s pulp artwork, such as that by Earle K. Bergey, who depicted futuristic women in a "stereotyped combination" of metallic miniskirt, bra and boots.
and gradually climbed upward over the next few years. By 1966, some designs had the hem at the upper thigh. Stockings with suspenders were not considered practical with miniskirts and were replaced with coloured tights. The popular acceptance of miniskirts peaked in the "Swinging London" of the 1960s, and has continued to be commonplace, particularly among younger women and teenage girls. Before that time, short skirts were only seen in sport and dance clothing, such as skirts worn by female tennis players, figure skaters, cheerleaders, and dancers.
Several designers have been credited with the invention of the 1960s miniskirt, most significantly the London-based designer Mary Quant and the Parisian André Courrèges.
Early history
In China
In the Warring States period of China, men could wear short skirts similar to a kilt. In the Qin dynasty, the first imperial dynasty of China, some short skirts worn by men were short enough to reach the mid-thighs as observed in the Terracotta army of Qin Shihuang. Han Chinese women also wore short outer skirts, such as the and the ; however, they had to be worn over a long skirt. One of the earliest known cultures where women regularly wore clothing resembling miniskirts was a subgroup of the Miao people of China, the . In albums produced during the Qing dynasty from the early eighteenth century onward to illustrate the various types of Miao, the women were depicted wearing "mini skirts that barely cover the buttocks." At least one of the "One Hundred Miao Pictures" albums contains a poem that specifically describes how the women's short skirts and navel-baring styles were an identifier for this particular group.In Europe and America
Figurines produced by the Vinča culture have been interpreted by archaeologists as representing women in miniskirt-like garments. One of the oldest surviving garments resembling a miniskirt is short and woolen with bronze ornaments. It was worn by the Egtved Girl for her burial in the Nordic Bronze Age.File:OYME girls.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Female members of modern Erzyan folk band Oyme wearing costumes similar to ones described by Melnikov-Pechersky
Russian writer Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky has noted numerous times in his ethnographic works about the 19th century Mordvin people that their culture valued the beauty of female legs, and Mordvin women could wear short .
In 1922, skirts were shortened and could now reach the mid-shin rather than just the ankle. The banana skirt worn by the dancer Josephine Baker for her mid-1920s performances in the Folies Bergère was subsequently likened to a miniskirt. Prior to being censored in 1934, cartoon character Betty Boop also wore a short skirt. In the 20th century until the 1960s women did not generally wear skirts above the knee. Exceptions included stage performers or showgirls like Josephine Baker, athletes, and competitive dancers. During the 1950s, even the skirts of cheerleaders and many ballerinas fell to the calf. Women were taught to keep their knees covered, seat themselves in ways that kept the legs together, or maintain other postures to avoid being viewed as sexually promiscuous. Nevertheless, miniskirts were beginning to emerge by this time. Two notable examples that showed miniskirts were the science fiction films Flight to Mars and Forbidden Planet.
Mid-20th century science fiction
Extremely short skirts became a staple of 20th-century science fiction, particularly in 1940s pulp artwork such as that by Earle K. Bergey, who depicted futuristic women in a "stereotyped combination" of metallic miniskirt, bra and boots. The "sci-fi miniskirt" was seen in genre films and television programmes as well as on comic book covers. The very short skirts worn by regular female characters Carol and Tonga in the 1950–55 television series Space Patrol are considered as probably the first 'micro-minis' to have been seen on American television. Only one formal complaint relating to the skirts has been known, by an advertisement agency regarding an upwards shot of Carol climbing a ladder. Hewitt pointed out that even though the complainant claimed they could see up her skirt, her matching tights rendered her effectively clothed from neck to ankle. Otherwise, Space Patrol was applauded for being wholesome and family-friendly, even though the women's short skirts would have been unacceptable in other contexts. Although the 30th-century women in Space Patrol were empowered, experts in their field, and largely treated as equals, "it was the skirts that fuelled indelible memories." The Space Patrol skirts were not the shortest to be broadcast at the time. The German-made American 1954 series Flash Gordon showed Dale Arden in an even shorter skirt.1960s
The manager of an unnamed shop in London's Oxford Street began experimenting in 1960 with skirt hemlines an inch above the knees on window mannequins and noted how positively his customers responded. In August 1961, Life published a photograph of two Seattle students at the University of Hawaiʻi wearing above-the-knee garments called "kookie-muus", an abbreviated version of the traditionally concealing muumuu, and noted a "current teen-age fad for short skirts" that was pushing hemlines well above the knee. The article also showed young fashionable girls in San Francisco wearing hemlines "just above the kneecap" and students at Vanderbilt University wearing "knee ticklers" ending three inches above their knee when playing golf. The caption commented that such short skirts were selling well in the South and that "some Atlanta girls" were cutting old skirts to "thigh high" lengths.Skirts three or four inches above the knee were spotted during the Spring 1962 Paris couture showings, prompting a soundly negative response from American Vogue. This pre-dates the famous above-the-knee skirts shown by André Courrèges in 1964, normally said to be the first such skirts shown by the couture, but it's unclear whether the 1962 skirts were seen on the runway or on the streets. Extremely short skirts, some as much as eight inches above the knee, were observed in Britain in the summer of 1962. The young women who wore these short skirts were called "Ya-Ya girls", a term derived from "yeah, yeah" which was a popular catcall at the time. One retailer noted that the fashion for layered net crinoline petticoats raised the hems of short skirts even higher. The earliest known reference to the miniskirt is in a humorous 1962 article datelined Mexico City and describing the "mini-skirt" or "Ya-Ya" as a controversial item of clothing that was the latest thing on the production line there. The article characterised the miniskirt as stopping eight inches above the knee. It referred to a writing by a psychiatrist, whose name it did not provide, who had argued that the miniskirt was a youthful protest of international threats to peace. Much of the article described the reactions of men, who were said to favour the fashion on young women to whom they were unrelated, but to oppose it on their own wives and fiancées.
Only a very few people, including an avant-garde in the UK, wore such lengths in the beginning years of the decade. The standard hemline for public and designer garments in the early sixties was mid-knee, just covering the knee. It would gradually climb upward over the next few years, fully baring the knees of mainstream models in 1964, when both André Courrèges and Mary Quant showed above-the-knee lengths, followed shortly thereafter by Rudi Gernreich and Jacques Tiffeau in the US. The following year, skirts continued to rise as British miniskirts were officially introduced to the US in a New York show whose models' thigh-high skirts stopped traffic. By 1966, many designs had the hem at the upper thigh. Towards the end of the 1960s, an even shorter version of the miniskirt, called the microskirt or micro-mini, emerged.
File:Aankomst Paper Dolls, Engelse beatgroep, op Schiphol. De Paper Dolls, Bestanddeelnr 921-4476.jpg|thumb|The English girl band The Paper Dolls at Schiphol Airport in 1968
The shape of miniskirts in the 1960s was distinctive. They were not the squeezingly tight skirts designed to show off every curve that 1950s sheath skirts had been, nor were they shortened versions of the tightly belted, petticoat-bolstered 1950s circle skirt. In the 1990s and later, exhibitions on the sixties would occasionally present vintage miniskirts pulled in tight against gallery mannequins, but sixties miniskirts were not worn tight in that way. Sixties miniskirts were simply-constructed, uninhibiting, slightly flared A-line shapes, with some straight and tapered forms seen in the early years of their existence. This shape was seen as deriving from two forms of the 1950s: the shift dress, a waistless, tapered column introduced by Givenchy in 1955, presaged by Karl Lagerfeld in 1954, and refined by Givenchy and Balenciaga in 1957 under the names sack dress or chemise dress, and the trapeze dresses popularized by Yves Saint Laurent in 1958 that were a variation of Dior's 1955 A-line, both of a geometric triangular shaping. In silhouette, the minidresses of the mid-1960s were basically abbreviated versions of the shift dress and trapeze dress, with Paco Rabanne's famous metal and plastic minidresses of 1966 and 1967 following the trapeze line and most of Rudi Gernreich's following the shift line. Even the unusual miniskirts produced by Pierre Cardin from 1967 to 1970 consisting of masses of strips or loops that swung about the hips still maintained a flaring shape. London boutiques sold naturally flaring choristers' smocks as minidresses. Mary Quant and other British designers, as well as Betsey Johnson in the US, also showed minidresses that resembled elongated rugby jerseys, body-skimming but not tight. When skirts were worn alone, they tended to sit on the hips rather than holding the waist, called hipster minis if they were really low on the hips. The fashionable forms of the microminis of the later 1960s were also not tight, often looking somewhat tunic-like and in fabrics like Qiana.
In addition, sixties miniskirts were not worn with high heels but with flats or low heels, for a natural stance, a natural stride, and to enhance the fashionable child-like look of the time, seen as a reaction to 1950s artifice like stiletto heels, constrained waists, padded busts, and movement-inhibiting skirts. Another way youth was indicated in the new short skirts was through using models with slim but muscular legs, as preferred by designers André Courrèges and Emanuel Ungaro at the time. The designer Mary Quant was quoted as saying that "short short skirts" indicated youthfulness, which was seen as desirable, fashion-wise.
In the UK, skirts shortened to less than were classed as children's garments rather than adult clothes. Children's clothing was not subject to purchase tax whereas adult clothing was. The avoidance of tax meant that the price was correspondingly less.
Stockings with suspenders were not considered practical with miniskirts and were replaced with coloured tights or pantyhose. Legs could also be covered with knee-high socks or various heights of boots, lower-calf height in 1964–65, knee-heights throughout the period, over-the-knee and thigh-high boots more 1967–69, and even boot-hose or body boots, often in stretch vinyl. Sandal straps or laces might crisscross or otherwise rise up the leg, even as high as the thigh, and body paints were offered for a time to add colour to the leg in more individualised ways than wearing tights.
While tights and pantyhose did solve some problems associated with the new short lengths, for more coverage some designers, primarily Ungaro, included matching shorts to be worn under their miniskirts, usually as short as or slightly shorter than the skirt but occasionally slightly longer. Skirt-looking shorts, known as divided skirts or culottes, long familiar items, were now also available in mini lengths, giving the look of a miniskirt but actually a bifurcated garment. Another concern as miniskirts became the norm was how older women and those with less-than-perfect legs could wear the new lengths. Designer Pierre Cardin attempted to address this problem in 1966 by recommending that skirt, tights, and shoes all be the same color and that the tights be somewhat thick.
During the late 1960s, as most skirts became shorter and shorter, designers began offering a few alternatives. Calf-length midi-skirts were introduced in 1966–67, and floor-length maxi-skirts appeared around the same time after being seen on hippies first around 1965–66. Like miniskirts, these were overwhelmingly casual in feel and simply constructed to a two-straight-side-seams A-line shape. Women in the late sixties welcomed these new styles as options but did not necessarily wear them, feeling societal pressure to shorten their skirts instead.
Decades later, starting in the late nineties, the term midi-skirt would be expanded to refer to any calf-length skirt from any era, including skirts of that length from the 1930s, 1950s, and 1980s of any shape, and the term maxi-skirt would be expanded to apply to any floor-length skirt from any era, including ballgowns. This was not the case during a period from the late 1960s to the 1980s, when the term midi-skirt only applied to casual, simply-cut A-line calf-length skirts of the late sixties and earliest seventies and the term maxi-skirt only applied to casual, simply-cut A-line floor-length skirts of the late sixties and earliest seventies. Even the full, calf-length skirts worn from the mid-seventies to the early eighties were not called midi-skirts at the time, as that was by 1974 considered a passė term restricted only to a specific shape of skirt from the late sixties and earliest seventies.
As designers attempted to require women to switch to midi-skirts in 1969 and 1970, women, especially in the US, responded by ignoring them, continuing to wear minis and microminis and turning to trousers like those endorsed by Yves Saint Laurent in 1968, a trend that would dominate the 1970s.