The miniskirt: how the garment that conquered the world emerged
Among the many revolutions of the prodigious 1960s, from The Beatles to the first man on the Moon, the miniskirt remains one of the most enduring icons of the time.
Although there are different opinions on who invented the abbreviated garment - with Mary Quant, André Courrèges, John Bates and Jean Varon vying for the title - the launch pad for the miniskirt in London was the local designer Quant, who at the time was the engine of fashion in a city that was setting the pace.
"The miniskirt was an extraordinary phenomenon and had a huge impact as it was part of the emerging youth culture of the 1960s," says Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. York.
"It was very much an expression of that youth culture and the beginning of the sexual liberation movement that brought about the invention of the contraceptive pill. It was like a historic moment," she adds.
"There had already been something like a youth culture and short skirts in the 1920s, but despite the fact that young women of the 1920s were considered more sexually free than their predecessors - they could date their partners unsupervised, choose her future spouse, kissing several men before getting married and exchanging caresses, were still threatened with what had always limited women's sexual freedom: the danger of getting pregnant. "
A skirt for the car
Few women, mostly athletes, had worn miniskirts until Quant began selling them at her legendary Bazaar boutique on equally legendary King's Road.
But she had experimented with something similar in her youth, when she hooked the skirt of her school uniform up to "look more interesting."
Quant's muse was a tap dancer whom she spied on in the dance studio where she was taking ballet classes.
"Once, I listened to the music that came from next door and when I looked out I saw a kind of tapping and in the middle of the room, a girl a couple of years older than me, who reflected everything I wanted to be," Quant told The Week magazine.
"She was wearing a short pleated skirt about 25cm long, with a tight black sweater, black stockings, and a bob haircut. What surprised me was how her entire appearance focused on what she had on her feet: a pair of white socks and a pair of ankle strap shoe shoes ... From that day on I was fascinated by that beautiful image of legs and ankles. "
Quant, who turned 80 in February, named her famous miniskirt for her favorite car, the Mini Cooper. "The miniature car went perfectly with the miniskirt; he did everything you wanted, he looked great, he was optimistic, exuberant, young, flirtatious ... all in his right measure," Quant said in the documentary "Mary Quant, Mini Cooper, Mini skirt".
Obscene
With a heady mix of messages, Quant's flirty miniskirts conveyed mischievous innocence and playful feminine demeanor, while delivering a rebellious blow to the postwar pent-up generation of the 1950s, who grew up among basic utilitarian designs.
With its bold short hem, the miniskirt - then worn with low strap shoes or zipped high boots and chunky stockings with bold colors - challenged society by shaking conservative values.
"Businessmen pounded on the display case and yelled, 'It's obscene, it's disgusting.' Extraordinary, isn't it?" Quant exclaimed in wonder in an interview with Alexandra Shulman of British Vogue magazine. Among his detractors was none other than Coco Chanel, who called the miniskirt "simply horrendous."
"From the 1930s to the 1950s, an increasingly conservative attitude developed. The youth culture of the 1960s dramatically broke with that, even though it had its roots in the 1950s," observes Valerie Steele.
For Quant, it was the girls on the street who invented the miniskirt. Her clients even asked her to shorten her creations further. "It all started in Chelsea (London neighborhood). The spirit was to break the rules," the designer told the Sunday Mirror newspaper.
Playtime!
Image CopyrightTHINKSTOCK
Before the 1960s women had to dress like their mothers; then the young women began to dress like young men.
Suddenly, the fashion with its jolt of crayon colors, which contrasted with the opaque yellow and brown colors of the post-war British era, all seemed like a playground, with Twiggy leading the movement.
With androgynous looks, lanky legs, Peter Pan-style hair, seductive Bambi eyes, and made-up eyelashes, the British model moved away from the debutant elegance of 1950s models.
Staying true to the hem index, whereby the hem of the skirts reflects stock prices, the miniskirt perfectly captured London's boom in the 1960s.
And, with the worldwide craze for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the demand for short skirts quickly took off (cementing the trend, Jackie Kennedy chose a short white Valentino dress for her marriage to Aristotle Onassis in 1968).
While the popularity of the miniskirt was overshadowed by the new hippie silhouette of flared pants and loose skirts, the garment has become a classic, re-emerging during the 1980s, with 'rah-rah' skirts and suits with short skirts.
Age limit?
Collecting various personalities over the years, with variations in length, materials and accessories that project different spirits, the miniskirt, more than any other garment, is a symbol of youth.
With women who want to stretch the age limits imposed by society, particularly during this era of celebrities with great bodies, the question is what is the right age to wear a miniskirt.
According to a recent study by the British department store Debenhams, women like to wear miniskirts until they are 40 years old, whereas in 1980 women stopped wearing them from the age of 33.
However, such a democratic point of view remains somewhat short-sighted.
Or limits to freedom?
With the prohibitions in force in several countries, the miniskirt has not entered certain territories.
Image caption
In Indonesia, a sign says, "Don't tell me how to dress, tell them not to rape us."
As recently as 2010, the mayor of an Italian spa, Castellammare di Stabia, ordered the police to fine anyone who wore a "too short" miniskirt, while in late February, 200 women took to the streets of the capital. from Uganda to protest the new anti-pornography legislation, dubbed the "miniskirt law" by local media, which prohibits women from displaying their thighs, breasts and buttocks and dressing indecently to sexually provoke.
Fifty years after its invention, the garment still has many barriers to break.
"With the rise of different types of religious fundamentalisms worldwide, there is a backlash against women and sexual liberation," says Steele.
Despite the fact that the initial impact factor of the miniskirt is already behind in most western cities, as well as cities like Tokyo or Shanghai, "in many parts of the world, I would definitely hesitate before putting on a miniskirt," she added. .
However, "if we look forward, we hope for a freer future, while if we look back we see a more restrictive past, and the miniskirt is a symbol of it."
