I love short skirts, but as a fit, professional woman, how short can I go? I’m comfortable with two, maybe three inches above the knee, but I’m afraid of dressing “too young” as the years go by. How do I know when I have crossed the border? – Ann, Portsmouth, NH
Even before Ally McBeal spawned a cottage industry should-you-or-shouldn’t-you-chat by wearing extremely short skirts to her law office in the 1990s sitcom, and before Mary Quant rocked the fashion world in the 1960s with the miniskirt, Gussie Moran caused a stir in the tennis world in 1949 by introducing the knee-length playing skirt to chop off the top. thigh, the better you can move across the field. Tennis fans trembled, Wimbledon authorities panicked, and Ms. Moran, nicknamed “Gorgeous Gussie,” was charged by ‘bringing vulgarity and sin into tennis’.
The point is: short skirts in the workplace have always been controversial, regardless of the office or age of the person wearing them. It started with the ankle in the Victorian era and has continued unabated. For some people, any view of a leg is a problem. This is just another dimension of the body issue, in which exposing the female body is seen as a warning sign and temptation, and has its roots in age-old prejudices and fears.
However, it is not illegal. “Generally speaking, anything, even genitals, can be legally displayed in public,” says Susan Scafidi of Fordham University’s Fashion Law Institute. That means you can officially wear your skirts as short as you want almost anywhere, as long as you’re willing to deal with the judgments of those around you. And the fact (see Ally McBeal) that conversations can be as much about what you wear as what you do.
What can work for or against you.
On the one hand, it’s annoying when your clothes are the center of attention and not your content. This is especially true given the way fashion has been used as a tool to portray women as decorative and not as serious candidates for top jobs. (The skirt scandal derailed Gussie Moran’s career.)
On the other hand, it’s annoying to have to deny your gender to prove yourself. I considered it a breakthrough when Michelle Obama, as first lady, wore floral dresses instead of sedate skirt suits, as if to confront the world with the fact that you can be a change agent and a woman at the same time.
A close friend who started her career as a government attorney said she remembered a colleague from her early days in Washington who was known around the office for wearing “too-short skirts and leather.”
“We all had doubts about it,” my friend said, “but she knew, and it was her thing.” Ultimately, the short skirts became her colleague’s signature and, because she refused to give in to social pressure to change, a sign of her toughness.
This is also the approach of Susan Greenfield, 73, the Oxford neuroscientist, author and first female director of the Royal Institution, who called “Britain’s best-known scientist” thanks to her career and her penchant for wearing miniskirts well into middle age.
“I hate boring clothes,” said Dr. Greenfield at The London Time. “And I wear short skirts because my legs are as thin as Olive Oyl’s.” Also because having fun with clothes helped her in her quest to popularize science.
Tory Burch, 58, whose current collection includes many short skirts specifically designed to “help women feel chic, confident and powerful,” said that “it comes down to balance.”
“If a skirt is very short, I like to wear it with a higher neckline,” Ms. Burch said. Think of a mini dress with a car coat or a short skirt with a long blazer. In winter, consider matte tights.
Ultimately, the choice comes down to what gives you the most confidence, rather than anything to do with fashion, which these days offers short, long skirts and all lengths in between. (Diane von Furstenberg, 77, for her part said, “I think the hem should flirt with the knee, both above and below.”)
If you’re constantly worried about your skirts being too short, that’s probably the case, not because of any immutable rule, but because thinking about what other people think takes up too much of your brain. If refusing to conform to the old mores makes you feel more powerful – a bit like a pre-battle display of plumage – great. The choice is yours. And choice is always good.
Your style questions, answered
Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa answers a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her at any time e-mail or Tweet. Questions are edited and condensed.
