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.
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.[3]
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.[4]
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.
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.[7]
Maxi skirts are skirts that end at the ankle, used in the 1960s against the miniskirt.[6]
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.[8]
Puffball skirts are skirts which are held at the bottom to create a round look.[9]
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.[10]
A swing skirt is tight at the hips but wide at the bottom.
↑Evans, Caroline (2004). "Cultural Capital 1976–2000". In Breward, Christopher; Ehrman, Edwina; Evans, Caroline (eds.). The London look : fashion from street to catwalk. New Haven: Yale University Press / Museum of London. p. 149. ISBN9780300103991.