History
Narrow-fitting skirts have a long history in western fashion. The predecessor to the pencil skirt is the hobble skirt, a pre-WWI fad inspired by the Ballets Russes. This full-length skirt with a narrow hem seriously impeded walking.
The French designer Christian Dior introduced the classic modern pencil skirt in the late 1940s, using the term H-line to describe its shape. It is in stark contrast to Dior's full-skirted New Look in his "A-line".
The pencil skirt quickly became very popular, particularly for office wear. This success was due to women's desire for new fashions in the wake of Second World War rationing, coupled with the austere economic climate, when fabrics were expensive.
Read more about this topic: Pencil Skirt
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“As I am, so shall I associate, and so shall I act; Caesar’s history will paint out Caesar.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I think that Richard Nixon will go down in history as a true folk hero, who struck a vital blow to the whole diseased concept of the revered image and gave the American virtue of irreverence and skepticism back to the people.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)