Christian Dior is credited with designing the ‘pencil’ skirt which he introduced in his 1954 Autumn /Winter collection.
Its origins can be traced back to the ‘hobble skirt’, a full-length skirt with a narrow hem that was popular before World War I. It was inspired by Edith Berg, the first woman to fly on an airplane. Berg wore a long skirt with a cord tied around her ankles to keep it from getting caught in the plane's machinery.
Skirt hemlines were for a long time associated with the stock market.
The ‘hemline index’ is a theory that suggests that skirt lengths rise or fall along with stock prices. The most common version of the theory was that skirt lengths got shorter in good economic times and longer in bad.
These days there is seemingly no correlation between the two. In fact, both short and long skirts are on trend for the foreseeable future.
However, for Pre-Fall 2025, several designers showed straight and narrow mid-to-maxi-length skirts and dresses that had a feminine and somewhat vintage look. Here are ten of the best.
Look 3: a cream-colored pointelle knit skirt with patch pockets and black floral buttons had a matching cropped sweater. Black boots, satchel and sunglasses finished the look.
