Skirt

A **skirt** is a piece of clothing that hangs downwards from the waist.
Different skirts have been worn in many different cultures at different times. There are skirts that are clothing for women, for men, or for both.

In modern Western / European culture skirts are usually worn by women. An exception is the kilt and the fustanella, which are traditional skirts for men that are still worn today.

Skirts are worn at semi-formal occasions, and sometimes at formal events, although a dress is more common.

The bottom part of a dress can also be called a skirt.

## History

Skirts have been worn by people for a very long time in the past.

A skirt made out of straw from 3.900 BC was found in Armenia. In ancient Egypt, men and women have worn skirts.

In the Bronze Age, the people in the South of West and Central Europe used clothes that go around the body like dresses. In Northen Europe, people wore skirts and blouses.

In the Middle Ages, men and women also used clothes like dresses. The bottom part of the dress for men were shorter than the dresses that women wore.

Today, skirts are still used by men and women. Such skirts are the lungi, lehnga, kanga, sarong which is used in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The kilt is used in Scotland and Ireland.

The Chinese were one of the early societies who wore miniskirts, which are short skirts.

### 1900s

In the 1900s, the dresses worn by Western women had more types than other years. The waistline of the dresses moved from under the breasts to the natural waist. Skirts were narrow at first, but they slowly became wider, particularly in the 1860s.

The "rainy daisy" skirt came in the 1980s, where the bottom of the skirt stopped touching the floor. This would give idea to the modern skirts with shorter lengths.

In the 1920s, short skirts had become famous. The longer skirts came back in 1930, before shorter skirts were used in war times because there were limits on fabric.

In the years of 1967 to 1970, skirts became very short, where the bottom of the skirt was up to the bottom of underwear.

## Types of skirts

- An _A-line skirt_ is a skirt which looks like the letter A. It is wider at the bottom.
- A _bell-shaped skirt_ looks like a bell. It becomes wider nearer to the top.
- A _circle skirt_ is a skirt made by cutting a circle in the middle of fabric for the waist of the person.
- _Culottes_ are a pair of shorts, but looks like a skirt.
- _Full skirts_ are skirts with much fabric in the waist part.
- _Gored skirts_ are fit at the waistline. They become wider at the bottom.
- An _inverted pleated skirt_ is a skirt made by putting together two parts of fabric in the middle of the skirt, at the front or the back.
- A _pleated skirt_ is a skirt with folds in the waist part called pleats, which make it narrow at the top.
- _Short skirts_ are skirts that end above the knee.
- A _pencil skirt_, or a straight skirt, is a skirt that is tight and near to the body. There may be a cut because it can be hard to walk in.
- An _underskirt_ is a skirt that is put under a different skirt, called an overskirt, or drapery.
- A _wrap skirt_ is a skirt that goes around the waist.

### Fashions

- _Ballerina skirts_ are a wide skirt used in the 1950s.
- A _broomstick skirt_ has many pleats (folds) made by twisting the skirt while it was wet.
- A_ bubble skirt_, _tulip skirt_, or _balloon skirt_, is a skirt that looks like a bubble or because the bottom part is folded into the back.
- A _cargo skirt_ has loops for wearing a belt, and many large pockets.
- A _crinoline_ is a skirt held up by hoops or petticoats.
- A _dirndl_ is a traditional Bavarian-Austrian style skirt, made out of straight material held together at the waist.
- _Denim skirts_ are skirts made out of denim, which can be made to seem like jeans.
- A _godet skirt_ is a skirt with triangular pieces of fabric put up from the hem to increase the wideness.
- A _hobble skirt_ is a long skirt which is so tight that it causes the person wearing it to have difficulty in walking, the person hobbles.
- A _kilt_ is a skirt with aprons in front and folds at the back.
- A _leather skirt_ is a skirt made using leather.

- _Lehenga_, a long skirt with folds. It often has embroidery. It is used as the bottom part of the Gagra choli, a traditional blouse in North India and Pakistan.
- _Maxi skirts_ are skirts that end at the ankle, used in the 1960s against the miniskirt.
- _Micromini skirts_ are extremely short skirts.
- A _midi skirt_ ends between the ankle and knee, at the calf.
- _Mini-crini_, a smaller version of the crinoline, which is a steel hoop used to hold up a skirt.
- _Poodle skirt_, a circle skirt showing a poodle for decoration.

- _Puffball skirts_ are skirts which are held at the bottom to create a round look.
- _Rah-rah skirts_ are short skirts with many levels of fabric.
- A _sarong_ is a square or rectangular piece of fabric worn around the body. It can be worn by both men and women.
- A _scooter skirt_ or a _skort_ is a skirt which has a shorts joined. It can also be shorts with a piece of fabric joined in front to make it look like a skirt.
- _Skater skirts_ are skirts which have a waist that is higher. The bottom ends on top of the knee. It is often made out of light fabric to make it look like skirts of a figure skater.
- A _squaw dress_ is made out of one or two parts. It is based on Native American clothing and is popular in the 1940s and 1950s.
- A _swing skirt_ is tight at the hips but wide at the bottom.
- A _T-skirt_ is a skirt made from a T-shirt.
- _Tiered skirts_ are made out of several levels, and each level gets more wide than the one above it.
- A _prairie skirt_ has one or more than one levels.
- A _trouser skirt_ is a straight skirt which has a top part that looks like men's trousers.

## Related pages

- Miniskirt
- Trousers