STYLE MATTERS: Hem and her: History of skirt reveals a lot

By Judie Schwartz & Evelinda Urman, Special to the Rocky

Published July 30, 2008 at 6 p.m.

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Judie: Every once in a while, Evelinda lets me use my history degree in our column so my parents don't think my four years at the University of Michigan were a complete waste.

Evelinda: That's why, when I came across this adorable book called The Long and Short of It: The Madcap History of the Skirt, by Ali Basye, I knew it was perfect for you. It's filled with lots of tantalizing historical tidbits about skirts.

Judie: What a sweet gift. I'm touched.

Evelinda: Well, I got it for free, but I did think you were the right person to give it to.

Judie: Yeah, yeah, moving on . . .

Skirts started out as unisex body wraps but soon became associated with women's fashions. Around 1560, skirt became synonymous with woman, as in "round up the skirts, the knights are in town." The British refer to an attractive woman as "a bit of skirt," and "skirt chaser" is used to describe a man who likes the ladies.

Skirt styles have had many incarnations over the years. Here are some of the stranger ones:

* Monster hoops/the cage: Crinoline, shaped like a steel birdcage and covered by a top skirt, was popular with women in the 19th century because they could move their legs freely underneath. The problem was that it was clumsy to wear. Women were constantly knocking over figurines, starting fires from brushing against candles and even getting stuck in powder rooms. They didn't care. The cage silhouette was so popular that in its heyday half a million hoops were produced each week.

* Kilts: Kilts originally began as military and marrying garments for Scottish men. Traditional kilts were made of nine yards of fabric - hence the expression "the whole nine yards." In the 1920s, kilts became all the rage on college campuses. Coeds liked the "casual boyish grace" and carried the style through until the 1950s. Today, you can see the remnant of the kilt fad in private school uniforms.

* Parlor game skirts: In the 1950s, women wore wide skirts appliqued with backgammon and bingo boards. The wearer was supposed to sit on the ground with her skirt flared around her while her friends played the board games.

Skirt lengths were short during the Roaring Twenties and long again during the Depression. The "skirt length theory," which uses hemlines to predict economic activity, says that short skirts tend to appear in the good times and longer lengths crop up when the economic news is gloomy. In 1971, when hot pants were the rage, investors coined the expression: "Don't sell until you see the heights of their thighs."

Evelinda: OK, that's enough. Let's go shopping.

Want more skirt history? Read our blog at stylematters.us.

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