Any woman likes to wear skirts. They’re extremely fashionable, the right kind of skirt flatters the figure, women can show off their legs. The possibilities a skirt offers are endless. But do we know how the skirt evolved, and became the fashion statement it is now? We list the top ten fashionable skirts in history.
- Towards the 1860’s, skirts were huge, quite wide – think Scarlett O’ Hara in ‘Gone With The Wind’. That changed to the skirt being pushed out at the back, in the form of a train.
- In the 1880’s, we got the first truly tight skirts. The skirt became quite narrow from waist to hemline, and women teamed it with a chamois-leather petticoat. These were so tight it was difficult to walk!
- A few years later, these skirts became a little more relaxed, as so women became more relaxed too, as walking and getting about got easier.
- When the next century, i.e. the 20th century came around, the skirt changed again. This time it became one which was tight around the hips till the knee, and then, you could see a lot of flares and frippery. Teamed with tight corsets, women showed off their dramatic silhouettes with these skirts.
- However, with the coming of the First World War, skirts underwent a massive change because women did not have so many maids to dress them up. There was a call for practical clothes, and in came sensible, uniform styles.
- This continued till mostly the Second World War, and when this finished, fashionable skirts came back, with lots of nylon petticoats.
- In the 1950’s, long tight skirts became the rage, and many fashionable women started wearing corsets again, which showed off the curves in an exaggerated fashion.
- With the coming of the 1960’s, skirts became more relaxed, and became shorter, and a little more loose. Miniskirts, and straight skirts were introduced by designers, and in the early 80’s, fashionable women started wearing proper tight skirts again. While young women chose short skirts, older women favored knee-length skirts, either straight or tapered.
- The 1980’s showed another change with padded shoulders.
- And in the 1990’s, straight, sexy, short skirts were fashionable again, and thankfully, it has remained the same way since!