Pencil Skirt

From Eve’s fig leaf to the cave woman’s loincloth, to rustling Chinese silk, pretty Victorian frills, long unending skirts and London’s very own Mary Quant’s mini skirt (the world’s first), women’s clothing has come a long way. And yet, the pencil skirt has remained a perennial favourite with women.

It was in 1915, that high waisted skirt hems in Europe, America and the British and French colonies slowly rose a lil’ above the ankle and soon higher up to the mid-calf. The World Wars resulted in many shortages including textiles. That’s how skirts lengths grew even shorter. An offshoot of this shortage was the creation of the pencil skirt and women choosing to cut their long tresses to short blunts.

Though, European royalty dictated fashion in the earlier centuries, in the second half of the 21st century, it was Hollywood actresses like Gracy Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn among many others who inadvertently made the pencil skirt trendy, wearing stylish designs in their movies. Also by the end of the 1950s high-street, ready-made, off-the-shelf clothing fashion had become the rage, giving women a greater choice in dress design.

It was the late Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana who gave pencil skirts a new definition with their tasteful and sophisticated look, their choice of designer cuts, matching accessories like suit jackets, hats, handbags, jewellery and catchy colours that also included soothing pastels as well as dark shades.

’What is so special about the pencil skirt?’, one may ask. For one, it is the cut, the elegance of material comfortably accentuating a woman’s hips, tapering cone shaped to the knees, a teaser slit either on the side or in front or behind that draws attention to a woman’s shapely legs.

Today, women wear pencil skirts with matching suit jackets for business meetings and work. Pencil skirts in silk, satin or lace, even pleated pencil skirts can be worn for evening wear, be it a formal dinner or a romantic night out. The eternal favourite is now the black pencil skirt, which blends in with a blouse of almost any colour.

Knee-length casual wear pencil skirts also look good in fabric like blue denim, black leather and cool cotton pastels like cream and army green colours with co-ordinated with matching belts to highlight a women’s waist.

When buying ready-made pencil skirts or purchasing fabric to stitch the same, it is very important to make sure that the clothing material does not crease. As pencil skirts are stitched to just about fit a woman’s lower body, material that creases when sitting will spoil its chic look.

Apart from the pencil skirts, women’s skirts designs have matured and evolved over the years and adapted from various cultures. For example, the sarong and wrap around skirts (popular beach wear) are used in humid and warm climates while woollen skirts are favoured in countries with a cold climate.

Available online are original, vintage pencil skirts alongside smart pencil skirts by designers like Zac Posen, D&G Dolce & Gabbana among many others. Gothic clothing, which gets its inspiration from the Victorian era also, has some great pencil skirt styles for the Gothic clothing girl.