Jeans
get tighter, bikinis get smaller, tube socks get higher, afros gets
bigger and colors get brighter. It's all about spreading the plumage
for everyone to see. From leisure suits to Wallabees, fashions take on
the decade of excessive behavior in a storm of polyester, iron-ons and
platform shoes.
Take for example the Mini Skirt.
Mary Quant, chanteuse of the swinging 60’s Carnaby Street, is credited
as the first to reveal the ultra-short miniskirt. The mini was
shocking, and not since the 20’s flapper had exposing your knee caused
such a stir. Respectable ladies wore skirts at knee length, and young
girls were supposed to follow the respectable path, but something
happened when the daring Quant shortened skirts, and the world went
mod.
Designer Andre Courreges is also credited with the mini’s creation, but
Quant successfully commercialized the new freedom of teenage fashion,
exposing the sexually explosive 60’s to the mini. The all-too-revealing
miniskirt coincided with the birth of the sexual revolution, and
exposed more than legs. The birth control pill hit the market in 1960,
and in 1962, feminist and future Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown
published Sex and the Single Girl, a support manual for young women who
refused marriage but didn’t want to sacrifice the most primal urge. Sex
was everywhere, and even more shocking than girls enjoying sex was that
they were talking about it. And the miniskirt was the best
advertisement for the sexual revolution.
Girls could strut their stuff, free to expose their sensuality, and men
were just going to have to deal with it! No more covering up, keeping
flesh under wraps because of the consequences of temptation. The
miniskirt boldly stated the new confidence of a woman’s body, and her
place in the feminine world. Protection and ‘providing for’ was no
longer what the 60’s gal wanted. She called the shots, and in her sexy
new miniskirt, she got what she wanted.
The miniskirt has remained a major staple throughout the years, as a
sign of both sexuality and confidence (though we should warn you that
showing thigh won’t instantly turn you into an Amazon princess. The
mini might make you look sexy, but the confidence part is up to you).
The 80’s returned the miniskirt back to pure unadulterated sensuality
when Madonna slithered across the floor in thigh-high, black lycra
miniskirts. Paired with lace tights and mesh shirts that exposed the
navel, the 80’s miniskirt was unashamed and in your face. The 60’s mini
was mild in comparison to the body-hugging shamelessness of 80's cotton
lycra.
The mini-skirt received even more controversy when it found its way
into the professional realm of the 90’s. Heather Locklear’s ‘Amanda’ on
Melrose Place stirred up attention in her skirts that barely hung below
the hemline of her suit jackets. Professional women were conflicted:
yes, the mini-skirt made your legs look fabulous, but was this going
too far? When Calista Flockhart’s title character on Ally McBeal
received more attention for her skirts than for her law practice, girls
had to wonder if the line had been crossed.
Hemlines rise and fall faster than the stock market—where liberated
women are down on the exchange floor beside their fellow man, thank you
very much. The true fashion icon of the 60’s, the mini skirt is
fearless: it allows women to celebrate their sexuality, and yet defies
the old fashion convention of yesteryear.
