Skirt
A skirt is an outerwear garment having the general shape of a cylinder, open at both ends and tapered (thus, like a tube or truncated cone). It is fastened about the waist of the wearer and hangs down covering and encircling both legs simultaneously. Within this description, the skirt can be made of a wide variety of fabrics, and can assume as wide a variety of silhouettes and lengths.
The word skirt is of Scandinavian origin, coming from skyrta, which originally meant shirt, and was in use in English by about 1300. The shift in meaning from shirt to skirt may have been related to the fact that the peasant shirts in use at that time were long garments with an extension which hung down below the waist and over the legs; it was this lower portion which came to be referred to by the word skirt.
In any case, for many centuries, the common meaning of the word referred to the lower portion of any coat, dress, or such like garment, whether worn by men or by women[1]. The general restriction of the term to the garment of today is a relatively recent development, though the former usage still persists, gradually becoming more and more archaic.
Social usage
Virtually all known societies, both present and past, have been characterized by distinictive gender based clothing styles. For the most part, these styles are a matter of social convention. In Western society at present, the skirt is considered female attire, worn almost exclusively by women and girls.
That this is a matter of social convention is seen in the fact that, at times in the past, or in other cultures, items of wearing apparel which are distinctly skirtlike have been considered appropriate styles for men. The most well-known example is the kilt, the national costume of Scotland, and which is derived from the standard male attire of the Scottish Highlands of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Basic construction techniques
Pleats or darts are sometimes sewn into the fabric not only to provide the necessary tapering from hem to waist but also to change the look or ease of movement.
Styles of skirts
Notes
- ↑ Webster's 1913 Dictionary advances as their main definition of a skirt "the lower and loose part of a coat, dress, or other like garment; the part below the waist; as, the skirt of a coat, a dress, or a mantle".