Mini Skirt History

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Pink, fluffy poodle skirts and vanilla milkshakes; sparkly, sequined, scandalous flapper skirts, along with Jazz and chic plaid skirts come to mind when reminiscing about the evolution of iconic looks from women’s fashion of the past. Although all three of these looks are from separate eras, a constant in these three memorable looks is the skirt; the skirt is arguably one of the most versatile pieces of clothing. The skirt transcends further than merely the fashion world; the evolution of the skirt is an ongoing movement that traverses politics and pop culture. The evolution of the skirt marks it as a highly influential garment of clothing; defining gender roles and femininity, contributing to other art mediums, and constantly causing uproar, …show more content…
Specifically in music, mini skirts were mentioned relentlessly in many songs during the 1960s and the songs beautifully explain the attitude and reaction to the mini skirt. Wilson Pickett, an American R&B, rock and roll, and soul singer, released a song called ‘Mini Skirt Minnie’ in 1969. This song displays how mini skirts were viewed at the time in America. A particular lyric within the song reads, “you know you wear your dresses so high/ You stop the traffic when you walk by/ And the way you twist and carry on, you know what? /You're gonna break up a lot of happy homes.” Within this small stanza Pickett exposes a lot about the preconceived notions that arose when a woman was seen wearing a mini skirt, one being that she had the ability to break up a happy home. Despite that line, by saying that a woman in a skirt essentially had the power to stop traffic with her legs is very empowering. “My Aunt Minnie” by Allan Sherman is a song about someone’s aunt Minnie who buys and wears a mini skirt and now feels younger than ever. The series of lyrics that most stand out in “My Aunt Minnie” are “But my old Aunt Minnie bought a mini-skirt, and all the fellas flirt./ Everybody’s wise/ To my Aunt Minnie’s thighs/ In her crazy mini-skirt.” These lyrics among others saying that she danced at a discotheque and that Uncle Morris was a wreck, and that she traded her Van Gogh painting for a painting of a can of lentil soup said a lot about how mini skirts caused a new wave of women who felt powerful and young enough to do new things. “Harper Valley PTA” performed by Jeannie C. Riley but written by Tom T. Hall, is a song about a mother who is accused of being an unfit mother by the Harper Valley PTA where her daughter attends. A powerful stanza in the song reads “Well the note said. “Mrs. Johnson, you're wearing your dresses way too high./ It’s reported you've been drinkin’ and
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