Earlier this month, “Today Show” host Matt Lauer interviewed Kyla Ebbert, a 23 year-old Hooters waitress who was asked to step off a Southwest Airlines plane because she was “inappropriately dressed.” On the show, Ebbert modeled her “inappropriate” tiny green sweater, tight white top and white micro-mini.
Her hemline was longer than the XL T-shirts bikini-clad tourists throw on as dresses when they head up to the Third Street Promenade for pretzel-dogs.
But just barely. What is and isn’t appropriate when it comes to hem-lines has changed a lot over the past century. Before WWI, no respectable woman would be seen with a hem-line higher than slightly above the ankle. By the late 1920’s, hemlines had risen to just below the knee; as a flapper danced the Charleston, her skirt swished, revealing (how scandalous!) rouged knees.
By the late 1960s, when my mother was in high school, the mini was in. In order to make sure that girls were dressing as respectable young ladies, the principal would conduct random skirt checks. A voice would come over the PA instructing the girls to leave the frogs they were dissecting, leave the meatloaf they were making in Home Ec, and go out into the main hall, line up along the walls, and get down on their knees. Hemlines had to touch the floor. Of course, after skirt checks, girls crowded into the restroom to roll up their skirt waistbands.
Fast forward to the early ’90s. The shortest dress I ever wore had a hemline just past my tush.
In seventh grade, my middle school’s mascot was an Indian. (Just your average Indian.) I was in the marching band’s auxiliary as a flag girl. (There were no flag boys.) Our Indian Princess uniforms consisted of white buckskin dresses trimmed with fringe and plastic pony beads, tan panty-hose and white Keds. We had to wear white leotards underneath the dresses because: a) they were that short, and b) the dresses had large slits on the sides that would have revealed our training bras and Days-of-the-Week undies.
I will forever remember the day that the band director passed out our Indian Princess uniforms. He held up a dress to my back and, in front of the whole auxiliary class, told me that my butt was too low and handed me a longer dress. I was mortified. This man was looking at my butt? Men were looking at my butt? My butt deviated from normal butts? The barbershop quartet in my head began to sing “Do Your Ears Hang Low” with slightly altered lyrics.
I hated that dress. Fortunately, I only had to wear it for parades... in front of thousands of people... while smiling.
I’m glad that I live in a time and place where I have the freedom to wear whatever skirt-length I choose. But I also think that a woman should choose to wear skirts that flatter her body type. I also think that a skirt should be long enough so that the wearer can bend over without showing her panties (or the lack thereof) to the person behind her.
MARIEL HOWSEPIAN digs black coffee, fairy tales and a man in coveralls. She lives in Santa Monica and
SKIRT TIPS: ■IF YOU HAVE FULL HIPS AND LEGS, try skirts in fabrics that drape. You want skirts that follow your curves, without being clingy. ■ IF YOU HAVE NARROW HIPS AND SLIM LEGS (which I do not), you can get away with wearing skirts with pockets at hip-level. ■TO FIGURE OUT IF A SKIRT IS TOO SHORT, try it on and let your arms hang at your sides. If any of your fingers touch skin, it’s too short.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 28, 2007. Read the original PDF.