Prehistory and ancient history tomb in
Borum Eshøj, Denmark Skirts have been worn since prehistoric times as the simplest way to cover the lower body. Figurines produced by the
Vinča culture (–4500 BC) located on the territory of present-day
Serbia and neighboring
Balkans from the start of the
Copper Age show women in skirt-like garments. A straw-woven skirt dating to 3900 BC was discovered in
Armenia at the
Areni-1 cave. Skirts were the standard attire for men and women in all ancient cultures in the
Near East and
Egypt. The
Sumerians in
Mesopotamia wore
kaunakes (, ultimately from ), a type of fur skirt tied to a belt. The term originally referred to a sheep's
fleece, but eventually came to be applied to the garment itself. Eventually, the animal pelts were replaced by "kaunakes cloth", a textile that imitated fleecy sheepskin. Kaunakes cloth also served as a symbol in religious iconography, such as in the fleecy cloak of
John the Baptist. File:Vincha 066.jpg|
Vinča figurine depicting a skirt File:Fur skirt.jpg|Sumerian man wearing a
kaunakes, File:Egyptian kilt.jpg|Statue of Ramaat, an official from
Giza wearing a pleated Egyptian kilt,
Ancient Egyptian garments were mainly made of linen. For the upper classes, they were beautifully woven and intricately pleated. Around 2130 BC, during the
Old Kingdom of Egypt, men wore wraparound skirts (kilts) known as the
shendyt. They were made of a rectangular piece of cloth wrapped around the lower body and tied in front. By the
Middle Kingdom of Egypt, longer skirts, reaching from the waist to ankles and sometimes hanging from the armpits, became fashionable. During the
New Kingdom of Egypt, kilts with a pleated triangular section became fashionable for men. Beneath these, a shente, or triangular loincloth whose ends were fastened with cord ties, were worn. During the
Bronze Age, in the Southern parts of Western and Central Europe, wraparound dress-like garments were preferred. However, in Northern Europe, people also wore skirts and blouses.
Early modern history In the
Middle Ages, men and women preferred dress-like garments. The lower part of men's dresses were much shorter in length compared to those for women. They were wide cut and often pleated or gored so that horse riding was more comfortable. Even a
knight's armor had a short metal skirt below the breastplate. It covered the straps attaching the upper legs iron cuisse to the breastplate. Technological advances in weaving in the 13th–15th century, like foot-treadle floor
looms and
scissors with pivoted blades and handles, improved tailoring trousers and tights. They became fashionable for men and henceforth became standard male attire whilst becoming taboo for women. One of the earliest known cultures to have females wear clothing resembling
miniskirts were the Duan Qun
Miao (), which literally means "Short Skirt Miao". This was in reference to the short miniskirts "that barely cover the buttocks" worn by women of the tribe, and which were probably shocking to observers in premodern and
early modern times. In the
Middle Ages, some upper-class women wore skirts over three meters in diameter at the bottom. At the other extreme, the
miniskirts of the 1960s were minimal garments that may have barely covered the underwear when the woman was seated. Costume historians typically use the word "
petticoat" to describe skirt-like garments of the 18th century or earlier.
19th century During the 19th century, the cut of women's
dresses in western culture varied more widely than in any other century.
Waistlines started just below the bust (the
Empire silhouette) and gradually sank to the natural waist. Skirts started fairly narrow and increased dramatically to the
hoopskirt and
crinoline-supported styles of the 1860s; then fullness was draped and drawn to the back by means of
bustles. In the 1890s, the
rainy daisy skirt was introduced for walking or sportswear. It had a significantly shorter hemline, measuring as much as six inches off the ground, and eventually influenced the wider introduction of shorter hemlines in the early 20th century. In the 19th century, in the United States and United Kingdom, there was a movement against skirts as part of the
Victorian dress reform movement, and in the United States, the
National Dress Reform Association. There was also the invention of different ways to wear skirts. For example, in 1851, early women's rights advocate
Elizabeth Smith Miller introduced
Amelia Bloomer to a garment initially known as the "Turkish dress", which featured a knee-length skirt over Turkish-style pantaloons. Bloomer came to advocate and promote the dress, including instructions for making it, in
The Lily, a newspaper dedicated to the "Emancipation of Woman from Intemperance, Injustice, Prejudice, and Bigotry". This inspired a craze for the dress, which came to be known as
bloomers.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Susan B. Anthony, and
Lucy Stone, other early advocates for women's rights, also adopted this style of dress in the 1850s, referring to it as the "freedom dress". Concurrently, some female labourers, notably the
pit brow women working at coal pits in the Wigan area, began wearing trousers beneath a short skirt as a practical component of their uniform. This attracted the attention of the public, and various photographers produced records of the women's unconventional manner of dress through the mid to late 19th century.
20th and 21st centuries Fashion designers such as
Jean Paul Gaultier,
Vivienne Westwood,
Kenzo and
Marc Jacobs have also shown
men's skirts. Transgressing social codes, Gaultier frequently introduces the skirt into his men's wear collections as a means of injecting novelty into male attire, most famously the sarong seen on
David Beckham. == Styles ==