Skirt and dress

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A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment which hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs. Unlike trousers, a skirt is "unbifurcated" — that is, not divided into separate legs. A dress (also frock, gown) is a garment consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice or with a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres depicts the Comtesse d'Haussonville, wearing a dress.

In Western culture, skirts and dresses are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions. The kilt is considered a traditional men's garment in Scotland, and is growing in fashion in other parts of the world. Additionally, garments which are identified as skirts are being proposed as men's clothing by some of the trendier fashion houses such as Jean-Paul Gaultier.

At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of material (such as sarongs or pareos), but most skirts are fitted to the body at the waist and fuller below, with the fullness introduced by means of darts, gores, pleats, or panels. Modern skirts and dresses are usually made of light to mid-weight fabrics, such as denim, jersey, worsted, or poplin. Skirts and dresses of thin or clingy fabrics are worn with slips to make the material of the skirt drape better.

The hemline of skirts and dresses can be as high as the upper thigh or as low as the ground, depending on the whims of fashion and the modesty or personal taste of the wearer.

Some medieval upper-class women wore skirts over 3 metres in diameter at the bottom. At the other extreme, the miniskirts of the 1960s were minimal garments that may barely cover the underwear when seated.

Contents

1 Dresses and skirts in the 19th century
2 Dresses and skirts in the 20th and 21st centuries

2.1 Dresses
2.2 Skirts

3 How skirts and dresses are worn today
4 Men in skirts
5 Underwear
6 See also
7 References
8 Notes
9 External links

Dresses and skirts in the 19th century

During the nineteenth century, the cut of women's dresses in western culture varied more widely than in any other century. Waistlines started just below the bust (the Empire silhouette) and gradually sank to the natural waist. Skirts started fairly narrow and increased dramatically to the hoopskirt and crinoline-supported styles of the 1860s; then fullness was draped and drawn to the back by means of bustles. Dresses were generally one-piece garments from 1800 through the 1840s; after that it became common for a dress to be made as a separate skirt and bodice, and many dresses had a "day" bodice with a high neckline and long sleeves, and an "evening" bodice with a low neckline (decollete) and very short sleeves.

Throughout this period, the length of fashionable dresses varied only slightly, between ankle-length and floor-sweeping.

Victorian fashion, Artistic Dress movement, Victorian dress reform.

Dresses and skirts in the 20th and 21st centuries

Dress of the mid-1920s: Ad by René Lelong.

Beginning around 1915, hemlines for daytime dresses left the floor for good. For the next fifty years, fashionable skirts became short (1920s), then long (1930s), then shorter (the War Years with their restrictions on fabric), then long (the New Look), then shortest of all during the 1960s, when skirts became as short as possible while avoiding exposure of underwear, which is considered taboo.

Since the 1970s and the rise of pants as an option for all but the most formal of occasions, no one skirt length has dominated fashion for long, with short and ankle-length styles often appearing side-by-side in fashion magazines and catalogs.

Styles of dresses and skirts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries include:

Dresses

Basic shapes:

Shirtwaist, a dress with a bodice (waist) like a tailored shirt and an attached straight or full skirt
Sheath, a fitted, often sleeveless dress, sometimes without a waistseam (1960s)
Shift, a straight dress with no waist shaping or seam (1960s)
Sundress, a sleeveless dress of any shape, with a low neckline in a lightweight fabric, for summer wear
Tent, a dress flared from above the bust, sometimes with a yoke (1960s)

Fads and fashions:

Chanel's Little Black Dress (1920s and on)
Tea gown, a frothy, feminine semiformal dress
Dinner dress, a semiformal dress worn when fashionable people "dressed for dinner" (men in tuxedos or dinner jackets, even at home)
Evening gown or formal, a long dress for formal occasions
Ball gown, a long dress with a full, sweeping, or trained skirt for dancing
Kitty Foyle, a dark-colored dress with contrasting (usually white) collar and cuffs (1940s, after a dress worn by Ginger Rogers in the movie of the same name)
Cocktail dress, a semiformal party dress of the current street length (1950s and sporadically popular since)
Granny gown, an ankle-length, often ruffled, day dress of printed calico, cut like a Victorian nightgown, popularized by designer Laura Ashley (late 1960s-1970s)

Skirts

Basic shapes:

Straight skirt, a tailored skirt hanging straight from the hips and fitted from the waist to the hips by means of darts or a yoke; may have a kick-pleat for ease of walking
Full skirt, a skirt with fullness gathered into the waistband
A-line skirt, a skirt with a slight flare, roughly in the shape of a capital letter A
Pleated skirt, a skirt with fullness reduced to fit the waist by means of regular pleats ('plaits') or folds, which can be stitched flat to hip-level or free-hanging
Circle skirt, a skirt cut in sections to make one or more circles with a hole for the waist, so the skirt is very full but hangs smoothly from the waist without darts, pleats, or gathers

Fads and fashions:

Hobble skirt, a fashion of the early 20th century, with fullness at the hips narrowing to the ankles
Poodle skirt, a circle or near-circle skirt with an appliqued poodle or other decoration (1950s)
Dirndl, a skirt made of a straight length of fabric gathered at the waist
Prairie skirt, a flared skirt with one or more flounces or tiers (1970s and on)
Kilt-skirt, a wrap-around skirt with overlapping aprons in front and pleated around the back. Though traditionally designed as women's wear, it is fashioned to mimic somewhat closely the general appearance of a (man's) kilt, including the usage of a plaid pattern more or less closely resembling those of recognized tartan patterns of Scotland.
Miniskirt, a thigh-length skirt, and micromini, an extremely short version (1960s)
Maxiskirt, a midcalf-length skirt (1970s)
Broomstick skirt, a skirt with many crumpled pleats formed by compressing and twisting the garment while wet (1980s and on)
Sarong, a square of fabric wrapped around the body and tied on one hip to make a skirt; worn as a skirt or as a cover-up over a bathing suit in tropical climates.
Trouser skirt, a straight skirt with the part above the hips tailored like men's trousers, with belt loops, pockets, and fly front
Jean skirt, A trouser skirt made of denim designed like 5-pocket jeans

How skirts and dresses are worn today

In Europe and America skirts and dresses can be worn by females of all ages when they are not wearing pants. A skirt may be worn as part of a suit. Skirts or dresses are the garments of choice for many women in formal situations, such as weddings and geopolitical summits. In cold climates, girls and women may wear trousers or long underwear for warmth and/or modesty, with a skirt or dress on top to mark their femininity or other reasons (for instance, since they happen to be "in-fashion" at the time). In traditional societies, such as in many countries in Africa, the Middle East and Central and South America, it is considered inappropriate for girls and women to wear trousers rather than a skirt or dress.

A disadvantage of skirts and dresses that contributes to many girls and women preferring trousers and shorts is that they may be either too long and therefore limit freedom of movement such as when climbing ladders, or too short, in which case one, because of modesty will need to take the trouble when sitting down, such as crossing legs, to avoid exposure of the underwear. Dresses however can be cooler and less confining than many trouser styles, and they are still very popular for special occasions such as proms or weddings.

Men in skirts

Man wearing a Scottish kilt

Skirts, dresses, and their like are still considered primarily women's garments in the West and some other parts of the world, and the wearing of them by men in these areas is generally considered cross-dressing. In some countries and regions, though, the wearing of these garments is either normal or accepted as traditional costume. Examples include:

The Scottish kilt
Throughout most of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, sarongs are worn by both men and women.
The kaftan is worn by men in the eastern Mediterranean.
The djellaba is worn by men in Morocco and other parts of Africa.
The thobe is commonly worn by men in Arabia.
The foustanella, worn by men in Greece and the Balkans up to the mid-20th century.
The pāreu, a dress worn by both men and women in Tahiti

In Western fashion, attempts are occasionally made by fashion designers such as Jean-Paul Gaultier,Bravehearts: Men in Skirts exhibition (Nov 2003 to Feb 2004) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[link] or by the manufacturers of contemporary kilts to promote the acceptance of skirts as everyday wear for men. Notable past and present wearers of these contemporary versions include Samuel L. Jackson, David Beckham and Tom Cruise.

Underwear

Skirts and dresses are, like other outer clothing, usually worn with underwear. The kilt, on the other hand, is often worn without underwear. Indeed the uniforms of several Scottish military regiments mandate wearing no underwear with the kilt except at specified occasions.

References

Oxford English Dictionary
Brockmamn, Helen L.: The Theory of Fashion Design, Wiley, 1965.
Picken, Mary Brooks: The Fashion Dictionary, Funk and Wagnalls, 1957. (1973 edition ISBN 0308100522)
Tozer, Jane, and Sarah Levitt: Fabric of Society: A Century of People and Their Clothes 1770-1870, Laura Ashley Ltd., 1983; ISBN 0950891304

Notes

External links

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