As Designers Take Hemlines to New Lengths in Fall Collections, Some Young Fashionistas Regard Short Skirts as Passé
Wall Street Journal
By Christina Binkley
Before a recent shoot for OK! Magazine, a publicist tried to coax Amber Stevens, a young, leggy starlet, into a short skirt. Nothing doing.
"A mini dress just isn't something you go for right now," says Ms. Stevens, who prides herself on her style. These days, the 24-year-old actress wears her skirts hemmed below the knee.
The hemline of the moment is shin-length. There was hardly a miniskirt or mini dress in the fall collections that were just shown in New York and Europe. Skirts in all sorts of materials and silhouettes—pleated, pencil or "cocoon," which curves in at the bottom—appeared in lengths from barely above the knee to barely above the ankle. The looks vary from librarian-appropriate tweeds to slinky jerseys with a slit up to the hip.
To the fashion-conscious, minis can come off as overdone and just plain old. "It just looks like you're trying too hard," says Sharon Graubard, senior vice president of trend analysis for Stylesight, a New York style forecasting service. "That whole if-you've-got-it-flaunt-it thing really doesn't go right now."
It's a sharp turnabout for a look that long epitomized youth. Back in the early 1960s, the mini seemed daring, risqué and utterly modern. Young women picked up the look eagerly after it was introduced by London boutique owner Mary Quant early in the decade, says Colleen Hill, a curator at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Paris designer André Courrèges put a Paris edge on the miniskirt with his "Space Age" collections in 1964.
While the fashion industry moved to longer skirts during the 1970s, the mini proved stalwart, with resurgences in nearly every decade since then. In recent years, designers favored skirts that were often barely long enough to cover models' derrières. Store buyers frequently asked for runway looks to be lengthened in production so that regular women could wear them.
Many mature women still shrink from shin-length skirts. Ms. Isaacs feels that below-the-knee hemlines can make a mature woman "look like her own grandmother."
Also, women over 40 are often more willing to highlight their legs than other parts of the body. "I think a lot of minis are sold to middle-aged women with good legs," says Ms. Graubard.
The lengthening trend has roots in the collections of about a year ago. At that time, longer looks from a number of influential designers, including Rick Owen, Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang, prompted Stylesight to issue a report entitled "Long and Languid." Designers Miuccia Prada and Mr. Jacobs also showed prim, matronly dresses on their runways a year ago. And Rick Owens, who has always used a longer silhouette, has become increasingly influential in the past few years.
Boom or bust, the mini isn't gone for good. Given the speed of fashion trends, this one will assuredly cycle through.
For now, women who aren't ready to give up short skirts can choose dresses that hit just above the knee or have a flattering pencil silhouette. Other options that are sexy—but not as in-your-face as a mini—are dresses that have transparent layers or use slinky jersey fabrics. A slit can add va-va-voom to any length of skirt. For a casual-chic look that shows off shapely legs, try a long tunic over heavy, opaque tights.
"If you're going to be sexy, show your shoulders," advises Ms. Stevens.
