While many people believe the miniskirt was invented in the 1960s, this salacious skirt
has roots going back all the way to ancient Egypt. Archeologists have found evidence of women depicted wearing miniskirts in figurines and frescos across Europe and Northern Africa dated between 5400-4700 B.C.
In more modern times, the miniskirt made its first reappearance on the stages of Paris’
Folies Bergère thanks to Josephine Baker and her banana skirt. While not the most risqué
garment Baker ever wore, it was monumental because Baker was a worldwide phenomenon.
Everyone knew who she was. However, it was seen as an acceptable thing for her to wear
because she was a dancer. No modest 1920s woman would have ever worn the miniskirt—not even a flapper.
The miniskirt entered the public stage in the 1960s. Designer Mary Quant opened her
infamous boutique Bazaar in 1995 in London’s Chelsea district. Quant said she based her design
off the fashions she saw on the street, so in 1964 she raised the hemline of her skirts several
inches above the knee. Quant says what makes it “mini” is that the hemline hits roughly halfway up the thigh and is no shorter than 4 inches below the butt.
The look was quickly adopted by other designers and models like Twiggy and Jean
Shrimpton made the skirt one of the most iconic looks of the decade.
Wearing this skirt was one of the most rebellious acts a 1960s teen could do. So much so,
that the garment was frequently banned from places. Women weren’t allowed to wear miniskirts in restaurants or to work, and this actually led to a series of protests in support of the scandalous skirt.
Conservatives and feminists alike hated the skirt. The right-winged thought it was
ungodly and appalling, while our second-wave sisters saw it as objectifying to women. While the feminists eventually came around to the skirt, there are many very conservative people and places today that still object to the miniskirt.
In 2017, a young woman was arrested in Saudi Arabia for posting a video of herself in a
miniskirt. She was charged with indecency. In America, a lot of schools have very strict policies on how short a skirt can be and “mini” typically isn’t allowed.
The miniskirt is genuinely one of the most dangerous skirts a person could ever wear. Not
only because the risk of people seeing your underwear is extremely heightened, but also because of everything it stands for. Women fought long and hard for the right to wear miniskirts, so wear them with your head held high and your heels even higher.
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