How short is short?
Marcia Barrett defines it this way:
”For me-I`m 5 foot 8 and a size 8-short is 3 or 4 inches above the knees.
”For my daughter-she`s 6 feet tall and 26-it`s thigh-high, probably 6 or 8 inches above the knees.
”And for Mother-she`s 67 and 5 feet 4-it`s 1 inch above the knees. She says she feels dumpy in anything longer, that it just doesn`t look fashionable anymore. And she does have very pretty legs.”
Barrett directs the fashion office at Neiman-Marcus headquarters in Dallas and sees the whole short skirt fashion phenomenon in terms of individuals, rather than as a designer edict, an immutable uniform or a source of anguish.
In the not-too-distant past, skirts were known as long or short. Short meant a skirt ended somewhere around the knees, maybe a little above. Long meant mid-calf, below the calf, around the ankles-in other words, not short.
Then designers around the world sent models down runways in some skirts that ended around the knees and in some that ended three or four or five inches above the knees; they called all of them short. Others showed skirts that were about as long as a scarf is wide-and though some onlookers thought that length should be called sinful, they called those skirts short, too.
And women started wondering, ”What is all this short business about?
Just what does short mean?”
It`s not as easy to define short as it was in the `60s, when the
”proper” or ”fashionable” length of a mini was determined by designers each season-exactly so many inches above the knees-and everybody followed the same formula.
Fashion designers are far more independent today-and they know women are, too.
Bill Blass, who specializes in making clothes for grown-ups rather than jeunes filles, shocked some of his affluent customers when he showed some mid- thigh skirts. Later he explained: ”We showed short very short in order to make a point. That point is: short is in.” Clothes may be shown one way, he said, but they`re shipped to stores another way-and, in his case, at lengths that adequately cover the knees. ”Women then can shorten them to whatever length is appropriate-for their legs and age.”
The show-and-ship situation is much the same with other top designers. Like Blass, Oscar de la Renta is shipping skirts to stores at about 25 inches, with ample hems. Donna Karan showed very short styles, but is shipping skirts ranging from about 19 inches (a couple of inches above the knees) to 23 inches, depending on the size and style of the skirts.
Calvin Klein, though, is somewhat of a rarity. Most of his clothes have been shipped pretty much the way they were shown: very short to just above the knees. ”It destroys the proportion if you chop off skirts or add inches.”
Klein has been the most outspoken designer on short lengths, even going so far as to say that ”the long skirt is dead.”
Other designers haven`t been quite that adamant, but sales of fall skirts have encouraged them to keep thinking short as they design their spring collections.
Marie Holman, president of the Perry Ellis women`s division, said the ratio of skirts shown for fall was 80 percent short to 20 percent long. Their short skirts sold best, though retailers also ordered ”romantic, ankle-length skirts very well.” However, the short skirts are selling so well at retail that there will be no long skirts in the Perry Ellis spring collection.
”The interest in short took everybody by surprise. We`ll definitely continue short for next spring-not only short and slim but short in new shapes,” said Holman.
Short will also become far more important for spring at Esprit, according to spokesperson Kristin Joyce. In the young and trendy Sport group, 10 percent of the fall skirts are very long, but 90 percent are 18 inches, which is at least 4 inches above the knees, depending on height. ”Some of the denims are more radical, like 14 and 16 inches.” However, for spring, 90 percent of the skirts will be 16 inches.
In the more sophisticated Esprit Collection, 70 percent of the fall skirts are very long, 30 percent are short-meaning 21 inches (short, but not eyebrow-raisers). For spring, short skirts will be shorter by an inch. But, more significant is that reversal in percentages: 70 percent of the
”sophisticated” Esprit spring skirts will be short; 30 percent long.
Joyce says it all makes sense: Women will be accustomed to short by then, and spring is a more logical season for short.
”Short skirts make sense for where women are in their lives,” she adds. ”Women of confidence can carry off wearing whatever they want. We`ll see a greater emergence of personal style in the next few years.”
Anne Klein designer Louis dell`Olio calls short ”modern. They`re not a momentary trend.”
That, of course, will depend on women, who will ultimately decide how short ”short” really is and who will determine how long short fashions will be around.
First reactions from the fashion-conscious have been very positive. So far, retailers are indeed pleased with acceptance of the short skirts.
But short skirts obviously are not for everyone. Women in certain professions-lawyers, corporate executives– may feel short is not appropriate or may work for companies that enforce conservative dress codes. (To them, sleek-of-limb designer Carolyne Roehm says, ”Corporate America should worry more about what`s on a woman`s mind and what comes out of her mouth than how long her skirt is.”)
Even designers and retailers have been cautioning women to decide for themselves what length is best for their age, figures, legs and lifestyles. Ultimo`s Joan Weinstein says she advocates skirts ”at the knee for women with very good legs” and shorter ”only for young women with extremely healthy, well-developed divine legs.”
The results of such advice will be visible in months to come, as women seriously get down to the business of buying their winter wardrobes.
What they buy and wear-or do not buy-may reveal a great deal about the state of women today. If they wholeheartedly turn to short skirts, does it mean that they`re lemmings, as they were in the `60s, merely following fashion dictates? Or might it simply mean they like short skirts?
If short skirts fade away, does it mean women were confident enough to say, ”Not for me, thanks” or does it mean they simply have other things on their minds?
