There can be few items of clothing that have been reinvented as much as the mini skirt. Now, thanks to brands including Miu Miu it’s back again, and looking to make an impact for the summer of 2023.
The Trend
If we’re being truthful, the mini so ingrained in fashion that the mini skirt is never really out. However, for the upcoming warmer months bare legs are certainly in – and the runway dictates that the shorter the hemline the better. For SS/23 mini skirts have become micro.
Where have I seen it?
If there is one designer that’s championed the mini skirt in recent years it’s Miuccia Prada and her label Miu Miu. For SS/23 the designer sent models down the runway in micro-minis – even shorter than those worn by Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in the early 2000s. The message was the same across all the major Fashion Weeks: noughties nostalgia is coming for you. The micro skirt trend was instantly picked up by the likes of Bella Hadid, Naomi Campbell and Hailey Bieber, all sporting pocket-revealing short skirts. As Giambattista Valli famously said about his 2014 haute couture line, “these collections were all legs, legs, legs.”
History
The mini skirt is largely credited to English designer Mary Quant who designed several skirts that featured shorter hems and sold them at Bazaar, her King’s Road boutique in London’s Swinging Sixties. However, at the same time across the channel in Paris, Andre Courreges was also experimenting with shorter hemlines. The two are largely credited with the mini skirt. However, according to Quant, the trend was an ode to girls she saw on the street. “It wasn’t me or Courreges who invented the mini skirt anyway – it was the girls on the street who did it.” While the mini is nothing new, the micro variation of 2022 gives rise to the same kind of shock value as that of the original.
How it’s being worn
This season there have been several silhouettes of the mini designed with a variety of materials. Miu Miu provided a collection with low-slung waistlines, while Diesel’s denim micro mini is so micro that it requires serious thought – and much confidence – ahead of wearing. Elsewhere, minis are being teamed up with tiny shirts and knits, cropped and shrunken down to size revealing the midriff. For SS/23 designers have been more playful in the detail, with skirts cut and shredded, revealing the pockets underneath.
