The skirt is almost the oldest garment known to mankind, second only to the loin cloth. Basic rectangles of woven fabric were worn by ancient civilisations such as the ancient Egyptians, by both men and women: indeed, skirts have sometimes represented male attire, as demonstrated in this month’s feature on kilts and tartan (see page four). Nonetheless, the skirt is considered chiefly a feminine article and even as recently as the 1910s, the words ‘skirt’ and ‘petticoat’ were shorthand for ‘woman’.

Traditionally skirts have been worn for modesty and have also been symbols of luxury, beauty and prestige, expressions of personal style. When fashion advanced in the Middle Ages, long skirts of costly material came to represent high status, for leisured ladies wore trailing hemlines while working women wore shorter skirts, suitable for physical activity. Skirts, in covering the body below the waist, also have erotic appeal and over time have been styled specifically to draw attention to the female form, often accentuating a small waist and exaggerating the hips, sometimes distorting the appearance of the lower body altogether. For example, during the 1500s the pyramidal Spanish farthingale and later the wheel-shaped French or drum farthingale structures gave a rigid, unnatural shape to the skirts of high-ranking ladies; again during the 1700s wide side hoops or panniers were an essential feature of formal dress, continuing as a requisite of court costume until 1820.

Throughout the early-Victorian era multiple petticoats and tiered flounces formed fashionable dome-shaped skirts, until the vast cage crinoline was developed as a support. Unlike earlier modes, the affordable crinoline frame of the late-1850s and 1860s was adopted throughout society, as were later under-structures – the 1870s and 1880s bustles worn behind the waist to emphasise the posterior. By the century’s turn a constricted waist and padded hips created a shapely hourglass silhouette, sweeping Art Nouveau skirts with flounced, swishing ‘froufrou’ hemlines the ultimate in feminine seduction. During the early-1900s and 1910s it became common to wear a separate blouse and skirt for daywear and semi-formal occasions, the outfit completed with a tailored jacket (see DYA November 2016 and January 2017). Rising skirt hemlines culminated in practical flared calf-length skirts from 1915, favoured by war workers. Hemlines fluctuated, with daring knee-length skirts emerging in the mid-late 1920s and thigh-high mini-skirts defining youthful 1960s ‘permissive society’. Separates were by then the most popular mode of dress: many females were also wearing trousers, yet many work and social occasions required a conventional skirt.