When was the pencil skirt invented

As part of his H Line collection, he created a new shape for women to show off their curves in a way that until this point was unheard of. Directly before this, he was designing full skirts with nipped in waists as part of his New Look collection, using fabric with abundance after the strict rationing during the war so this was a real departure for him and something that women fell in love with and still wear today. His H collection focused on the vertical shape wanting our eye to be drawn to the hips rather than the waist; he created styles that sat perfectly on any size to emphasise women's wonderful shapes.

The pencil skirt was tapered at the hemline which sat below the knee, resulting in women having to move differently after years of wearing a full skirt. They started to literally wiggle along, shuffling their heeled feet in small movements, something that quickly became Marilyn Monroe's trademark — and the term "wiggle dress" was born.

Beautiful women such as Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn also embraced the look but wore it in a more preppy way rather than with Marilyn's sass, wearing it with flat shoes and a pretty blouse tucked in. The dance the Twist became popular around after Chubby Checker demonstrated it on the Dick Clark show. Fortunately, the skirts got a bit looser as time went on.

Imperfect though they might have been from a practical standpoint, a lot of celebrities really embraced the opportunity to show off their curves in pencil skirts. Or because pencil skirts are sexy and they make you walk like a sexy lady!

Once Marilyn was doing it, plenty of other stars known for their sex appeal starting wearing the new skirts. The notion conveyed was that the pencil skirt was an item for the sexually confident and sophisticated woman. Teenagers were told not to wear pencil skirts on account of how it would probably turn them into uncontrollable sex sirens. Teenagers who wanted to be sexy sirens would adopt mini-skirts instead.

Some claim that miniskirts were merely a natural shorter evolution of pencil skirts, but that is a lie. And that was the very early beginning of a new fashion trend. The flight and especially the skirt of Mrs Berg, became a hot topic in newspapers and magazines around the globe. Which was also known as the speed limit skirt. It also created a wiggle in the walk of the person who was wearing the skirt. Which is why tight pencil skirts are also referred to as wiggle skirt nowadays.

Besides that, it required walking gracefully. Also stumbling over your own feet was important to avoid. And the fact that most women had to work while their husbands were out at war, gave way to rising hemlines and trousers as the go-to everyday ensembles.

These pairings eventually gave way to the ubiquitous pencil dress, as often worn by the notoriously popular pin-up icon Bettie Page. Show all.