How the miniskirt has changed the fashion history

Despite having recently celebrated its fifty years, the miniskirt has managed to keep intact its image of timeless freshness and novelty. The history of this garment tells what has been the path of emancipation of women, but also how social values and aesthetic taste have changed throughout history.

The strong desire for change, the claim for rights and the need for practical and economic clothing made this garment become the most discussed and representative of the 1900s, an era in which we can read in every modification of the miniskirt a change in the values of the aesthetic sense of the society of the past. This small flap of very short, sensual and trendy fabric has been useful in the re-evaluation of everything that in clothing is a symbol of woman, bringing with it a strong connotation of social change.

How the miniskirt has changed the fashion history On the occasion of Mary Quant's death, here is the history and fun facts about the most controversial and revolutionary leader of the 1960s | Image 247097

History of the miniskirt

The invention of the miniskirt dates back to 1963, when it first appeared in the window of London's historic "Bazaar" shop. We have Mary Quant, a British fashion designer, to thank for this, who created it and thus anticipated the birth of British street style by decades. Rebellious and non-conformist. Mary Quant resembled her most famous creation: the miniskirt. Born on 11 February 1930 in Blackheath to a family of London university professors, Mary fell in love with fashion at an early age. After studying illustration at Goldsmiths University, she honed her skills by apprenticing with an upmarket milliner in Mayfair. At the age of 16, Alexander Plunket Greene, grandson of Bertrand Russell and descendant of an aristocratic family, helped her open her boutique, Bazaar, in Kings Road. There she sold her youthful, sophisticated clothes that mixed prints and colours, practicality and good taste, and perfectly matched the cultural and social ferment on the streets of London. A dress, she said, should not only keep you warm, but also attract attention, look sexy and make you feel good. Qualities that perfectly describe her most famous creation, the miniskirt. It is said that Quant had the idea for the miniskirt after seeing a mini. This resulted in a minimalist and revolutionary garment that became a symbol of the feminist era when she embraced the desire for freedom and the pull of social change.

Although everyone remembers Mary Quant as the inventor of the miniskirt, a dispute arose with the tailor André Courrèges, which the English designer dismissed by saying: "It was not me or Courrèges who invented the miniskirt anyway - it was the girls in the street who did it." The designer, in fact, after the dispute with the tailor André Courrèges on the invention of the miniskirt, declared that it was the street itself that invented this garment and that the credit goes neither to her nor to her colleague. Many argued that in the 1960s the future laid in André Courragès' scissors. Mini-skirts, geometric lines, bodysuits, pop art, totally white, vinyl and plastic fabrics are the most characteristic features of those innovations that today we find everywhere in the world of fashion.

"The Courrèges effect" was everywhere. Yves Saint Laurent himself declared that it was the example of this cotourier that led him in 1965 to create less conventional clothes; and Balenciaga himself, at the time, also shortened the rims of 10 cm, also influenced by the innovative style of his disciple and by the unstoppable change in current fashion.

The first miniskirts were colourful and geometrically squared, then with time, they became more transgressive and increasingly shorter. The tailor's merit was that of pausing to reflect on the needs of the working woman who required comfort, simplicity and freedom of movement. In fact, these new skirts characterized by a futuristic aspect perfectly reflected the vocation in seeking a way of living and dressing made easier through design.
The motto was to minimize to reach a maximum of seductiveness and comfort.

Personalities like Twiggy, Jackie Kennedy and Brigitte Bardot started to wear this new item just as if it were a uniform and became the face behind his creation that saw the end of an era marked by conservationism and sexual modesty.

In the 90s designers like Dolce & Gabbana or Prada built entire collections on this piece, affirming its importance and making the miniskirt become an icon of that time.

However, not everyone was enthusiastic about this new and controversial garment characterized by sartorial rationalism. For critics, in fact, the skirt was the symbol of the homologation of the woman-object rather than an achievement marked by emancipation. Coco Chanel herself described the miniskirt as "just awful".

It is certainly not a novelty that the past continually returns to the present: in fashion, courses have almost cyclical frequencies, in particular, the inspiration from the 60s we are talking about today is connected to the sensational awakening of the need for freedom in the way of dressing, a characteristic that appears again with more impudence and aggression than ever.

The miniskirt today has a very different value from that of the past, where this garment represented a casual mix of consumerism, generational struggle and rebellion against taboos. That this garment is in denim, leather, suede, satin or lace, it represents a fashion trend and a status symbol to be pursued beyond any critical sense; it is no longer the garment that is important but the way to wear it since it is the attitude that creates style.

Fun facts

1. The first appearances of the skirt date back to 2130 BC. with the Egyptians who spread the shendit, a short skirt wrapped around the hips and initially created as a purely male garment.

2. In 2009 a stamp was dedicated to the skirt in England.

3. It was nicknamed "mini" skirt because Mary Quant was obsessed with Fiat Mini-cars.

4. The spread of the miniskirt gave birth to the market of the nylon tights.

5. With the miniskirt George Taylor's theory "the index of the hem" was also born. This theory insinuated that the edges of the skirts went up along with the share prices. In fact, it was found that in periods of prosperity miniskirts were snapped up while periods of unfavourable economic times, such as the collapse of the Wall Street stock exchange, were characterized by chastened looks with very long skirts.

6. Shortening skirts under 61 cm made miniskirts children's garments and therefore not subject to the high purchase tax.

7. One of the reasons for the birth of the miniskirt was also the problem of the lack of textile material that did not allow to sew a skirt in its entirety.

8. In 1968 Paco Rabanne created a skirt made of gold and diamonds worth 10.4 million dollars.

9. In 2015 the World Mini-skirt Day was proclaimed, dated June 6 by Ben Othman, Tunisian president of the league in defence of secularism and freedoms, who dedicated this day to women oppressed by the system

10. The French feminist Hubertine Auclert created the league for short skirts, an association that fought for the right to less bulky clothing and more comfortable in movement.

nss G-Club special tips

And after this introduction, nss G-Club selected 10 of the coolest miniskirts of the moment, which recall the trends of the past that blend with the latest fashion trends. Enjoy!