In the world of fashion, styles come and go and then come back again. It may take decades, but you'll see them again. In fashion, designers do, after all, want to offer something new each year to tempt their customers to buy this new fashion. As cuts and styles vary from year to year, hemlines tend to stay more stable, remaining de rigeur for a number of years. Hemline trends tend to follow patterns describing what's going on on in the world. This is just what happened with the mini dress and skirt revolution of the early 1960's.
Economies were prospering, we were not yet at war in Vietnam and people were feeling pretty good about life. A young designer named Mary Quant, selling her fashions out of a small shop in the hip Chelsea district of London, put the mini dress and mini skirt on the international fashion map.
It's generally agreed that the mini dress and skirt began with Mary Quant's drawings of the short concept in the late 50's, and were first a fashion must as “street clothes” for the Chelsea hip crowd.
Whether it was an accident or by design, the mini was an instant hit, quickly spreading from London to all over the world.
There are a few other designers, including Andre Courreges, the haute couture French designer, who launched the mini dress and skirt look into the arena of public and international respectability. He associated his white thigh-high “Courreges boot” with his mini dress look thus gaining distinction in his particular take of the Mod statement.
When Diana Riggs showed up in mini dresses on the 1965 hit “The Avengers”, this popularized the mini dress even more, making the Mod fashion style an institution.
Supermodel Jean Shrimpton made headlines when she attended an Australian event wearing a short white mini dress. That and the fact that hat and gloves were not part of her ensemble nearly created a scandal in 1965 Australia.
The rule of thumb defines a mini dress or skirt as one whose hemline is at least seven inches above the knee. This being the case, it was not possible to wear the regular stockings and garters with the mini. Therefore, tights and pantyhose, often in exotic colors, patterns and embellishments became all the rage.
Popularity of the mini didn't start to fade until the mid 1970's, when the mid-calf and maxi lengths came (back) into style.
Now here we are in 2006, and the mini dress is once again being flaunted on the runways as a new hot fashion trend. If you're young and have got the legs for it, these are good looking clothes!
