The Long (and Short) of It: The Madcap History of the Skirt

by Ali Basye, Leela Corman

From its simple beginnings as a unisex body wrap to its bold march forward as an iconic symbol of femininity to a haute couture fashion statement, the skirt has had a perilous journey—one day subject to accolades, the next ridicule, and even coming under fire before the Supreme Court. Cultural icon, garment of personal expression, verb or slur, the significance of the skirt is grander than merely serving as an article of clothing.

Through the years, skirts have been both liberating and restricting, inspiring and exasperating. Skirts transcend mere fashion, serving as barometers of the cultural zeitgeist. The Long and Short of It will humorously detail the evolution of the skirt and the women (and men) who wore them. Loosely divided by different skirts (the bustle, the hobble, the pencil skirt, the peasant skirt, miniskirt, etc.), the book will chronologically cover ancient times, pre-twentieth century, World War I, the flapper era, Hollywood years, World War II, rock n' roll, free love, women's lib, the Power Decade, and several others. The Long and Short of It will will feature:

the relationship between women's salaries and their hemlines the history of the skirt through the changing wardrobe of America's first ladies religious references to the sacred nature of skirts nineteenth century fashion tips laws protecting women and their skirts The change in censorship of women's legs—by the length of Jane's skirt in classic Tarzan films crazy cases brought to court involving women's skirts—including a 2004 case of a woman lawyer barred from a courtroom by a judge—for wearing trousers

Snappy and fun, with two-color illustrations and amusing quotes and sidebars, this sassy history from famed book packagers becker&mayer! is the perfect combination of history, fashion, and culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

176 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Imogen · Rating 5 out of 5]

When my dog wakes up, at like seven thirty, the first thing she does is come into Alex's bedroom to see whether we're awake. We're not, so she leaves for ten minutes and lays on the living room couch. Then she comes back in and barks at us, which sucks because it is so quiet and we're so asleep. If we manage to ignore her, she'll leave for five more minutes, but then when she comes back, the whining starts. The whining is how she gets us, because she doesn't get bored with it at all- she just sits there and complains until somebody gets up and pays attention to her. She doesn't even want food! She just wants somebody to jump on, somebody to stare at. She is weird and bad.

I'm only telling you that to explain that it's eight AM, I am sick, and I'm up writing a review of this thing. In case my review is weird, or mostly about my dog, or uses the word "Foucaultian."

Anyway, this book was exactly what it said. It's a little Chronicle-lookin book that wasn't actually published by Chronicle, and you can read it in like an hour. I liked it though! I don't think it's going too far to call Ms Basye's work of history Foucaultian for the way that it excavates history and tells you where... like, y'know how there's just all these skirts around all the time, all different kinds? She wants you to know where they come from and what they signify and what they have signified and y'know. Some other stuff. Like did you know that a pair of pants is called a pair of pants instead of just a pant because suave gentlemen in Shakespeare times used to strap a different-colored tight to each leg- a pair of them!- and the plural just kinda stuck? Interesting! There was another interesting thing, but I forget what it was.

Oh! And there are two pages of flapper slang, which got this five stars instead of four. Flapper slang is the bee's knees.

[Meaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting and amusingly written history of the skirt, from the age of the loincloth to the present day, including lines like "the metal slats bulged out in the back as though the wearer had just hatched an armadillo" (about the cage crinoline) and "Women's behinds protruded almost perpendicular to their waistlines giving them the profile of a snail" (about bustles).

I would give this book four stars but for a glaring and most disturbing error on page 40, wherein the author refers to Catherine de Medici as Elizabeth I's stepmother. The two women were NOT in any way related and I can't imagine why Basye thinks they were. They weren't even from the same country. Kind of gives me doubts about the other facts in the book, though the fashion ones are probably accurate.

[Judie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A concise, very handy reference if you, as the title suggests, want to know how skirts evolved from time immemorial up to the present.