Flirty skirts summer’s new slim shape

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 12

Flirty skirts summer’s new slim shape

in vogue

Paula Ryan

Androgyny is out and femininity returns to womenswear with new romantic looks and bodyconscious silhouettes. Skirts are making a quite dramatic comeback. Women, it seems, want to feel utterly feminine again and all the New Zealand collections are offering a wide variety of rather flirty skirts. Styles range from the newer straight skirt to the fuller-bodied godet and the updated classic wrap skirt executed in a variety of fabrics.

Silhouettes are body conscious, with interesting shape becoming almost more important than length.

For summer, it is obvious that the skirt is taking precedence over pants. The newest-looking city suit has a lean, sexy, short skirt but when the skirt is longer, it is also lean with low pleats or single vent details.

The rather flattering godet also appears low on the skirt and features in a lot of summer dresses. The sarong shape is a summer star — knotted, draped and with asym-

metrical drapes apd slits. It can be worn at any length, mini, knee, or calf, and always • portrays a very feminine silhouette. Lengths vary according to age, shape, and what is known as body-line. For instance, if you have legs that are short from the knee to the ankle, very long skirts will make you look a bit like a duck, with no legs left. A very good book has just been released on the subject of lengths and proportions — body-line — called “Always in Style” by Doris Pooser. This could be an excellent guide in deciding exactly what your length is. Lengths range from really mini-short, just covering the bottom, to minis and mid-thigh lengths, stopping either just above the knee or just below it.

Calf-lengths can also be seen for straight skirts and wider, fuller, peasant shapes. Slim gored skirts with outward swinging hemlines, godets, low pleats, slits or kick pleats are normally worn at about mid-calf. There are also some

very attractive wrapover effects on knee-length, pencil-slim skirts which have an air of great femininity. Revived from the ’Sixties are skirts which take their inspiration from Courreges with geometric dividing seams, hugging the hips and generally without a waistband. To watch for are the new slim, pleated culottes and narrowly pleated skirts in fine fabrics, often buttoned right through. There are some romantic peasant skirts with lace and petticoat effects, some. frills and flounces as well as skirt over skirt and pinafores, complete with braces. This look is mostly within a special category of fashion this summer, loosely termed New West. It encompasses all the chambrays and indigo denims in a very citified Western style. Many skirts this summer rise high at the waist, sometimes with high waistbands but at times shaped to above the waist with detailed seaming. In the knits, skirts are definitely skinny-rib.

Patch pockets appear on the seat of narrow skirts and there is considerably more buttoning than has been seen for a number of seasons, particularly inside buttoning from top to bottom. Wide elasticised waistbands return from the ’Fifties and there is considerable use of lacing, particularly on high, wide waistbands.

With all the concentration on body-conscious-ness, waists return as focus points and the importance of a good belt is undisputed. There are beautiful, ornamental wide waist cinchers around in all the summercoloured leathers but for my money, with the kind of clothes we’ll be wearing this summer, a classic tan leather belt in the Calvin Klein idiom would be the best bet.

One thing is certain with all the varying lengths and widths of summer: it is imperative to have the right legs and feet.

With the shorter skirts goes a higher heel and the shorter the skirt, the higher the heel. Thin spikes are not necessary,

but the height does the balancing act. The longer the skirt, the lower the heel.

Very modern and very much part of the summer scene are neat little gold and silver pumps, which look terrific. Low-heeled pumps in basketweaves look very summery and are suitable for ethnic prints, chambrays and all the longer, fuller-skirted numbers. In the same way that black pumps and black stockings may have been your day-to-day winter basics, the summer basics may well be heeled silver slingbacks with whitened sheer stockings and a decidedly . lighter, fresher look to legs. The elements of a wider belt, modern shoes and shimmered .stockings will be the key difference in this season's skirt and shirt dressing.