Return of the Mini

By Michael Demarest

The short, short skirt is back--and no one's complaining

For those optimists who believe that stock prices and hemlines rise simultaneously, the sidewalks and store windows will provide ample reason for rejoicing this spring. From Rome's Via Veneto to Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive, the skirt has moved above the knee. In fact, the miniskirt is back. At Filene's department store in Boston, where one-fourth of all higher-priced junior sales are now minis, Buyer Ann Freedberg exults, "They look right. The timing is right." At the young women's department of Galeries Lafayette, the big Parisian department store, minis are this season's bestsellers. At Chicago's fashionable boutique Ultimo, customers snap up Norma Kamali's short skirts almost as fast as they can be reordered.

Most of the new minis are fuller and more feminine than the tight, boxy '60s style. "Flippy" is the word used by some skirt watchers. Says New York's Cuban-born designer Adolfo: "The old minis looked like clothes that had been chopped off at the bottom. Now they are different, looser." Adds Milan's Giorgio Armani: "The new miniskirt is not stiff and straight but soft, fitted at the hips and gathered for a short volume effect. It is also a natural evolution toward femininity after the dizzying circus of pants, knickers, Bermudas, gauchos and Zouaves." Valentino, the dean of Italian designers, argues that "women feel the need for greater liberty. They want to seduce and flirt. The new short skirts are wide and swing as you walk--it's hide and seek." U.S. Designer Perry Ellis, who has been showing short skirts for three years, notes that they have taken off, so to speak, only this year. Says he: "One of the most important parts of our business is change--looking fresh."

Unlike the short skirts of the 1960s, the new minis are not political or sexual proclamations. For many a dashing lass in that pioneering wave, the A-line mini was a kind of manifesto at the feminist barricades. The first cutoff skirts of Great Britain's Mary Quant, recalls Fashion Writer Suzy Menkes in the London Times, "were conceived as a rejection of everything that existing fashion stood for." They were also "an explicit sexual statement. Today's minis are far less predatory, and when they are worn over thick tights with leg warmers and big sweaters, they are a lot less revealing than a pair of stretch jeans."

Those early minis were also something of a joke, of course. Some Quant creations consisted of less material than a Victorian hanky and--at eleven inches above the knee--barely covered the area once reserved for underwear. On the way up from the pert Chelsea shopgirl look, the ultrashort skirt was given the imprimatur of couture by Parisian Designer Andre Courreges in the middle '60s. The mini's bon voyage across the Atlantic was largely the work of Enfant Terrible Rudi Gernreich, who was not only the first U.S. designer to bare the thigh, but also earned dubious fame with his topless swimsuit, the No-Bra bra and the see-through nylon blouse. By contrast with such outre expressions, the mini, if not the micromini, seemed positively respectable. Its social acceptance was assured when Jacqueline Kennedy surrendered to the new fashion.

The current trend toward high hemlines has even caught the fancy of Yves Saint Laurent, whose fashions tend to be statements and who is seldom brief. For the first time in years, Saint Laurent's spring-summer collection included miniskirts. His mini customers are mostly in the 25-to-35 age bracket, but women of almost every age who have good legs seem to favor abridged lengths. "Women are not trying to be 16 and Twiggy," says Betsey Johnson, the designer who was the U.S.'s head cheerleader for the mini in the '60s. "Mini is the most wonderful, healthy, extreme statement that can be made, because it defies fashion." Since women tend to stay younger these days, it can defy age. Designer Carol Horn, whose short skirts and dresses of suede have sold well this season, sees her customer as "a working executive woman who has money at her disposal and knows how to put herself together in different looks." Bloomingdale's Manhattan store has sold more than 4,000 Kamali minis, priced from $38 to $80, in the past ten months; Kal Ruttenstein, vice president for fashion direction, notes, "They have a universal appeal. We were surprised by the age and size diversifications. The mini seems to be bought by people with an interest in fashion and a lot of self-confidence, including the older woman who still has her figure."

Even those designers who shun the extreme approach of the mini are succumbing to the currents of fashion and are raising some of their hemlines at least an inch or two above the knee. As an Atlanta apparel buyer puts it, "Middleaged women will follow the fashion trend as closely as possible, and they will raise their hemlines. But they buy designer clothes as an investment and won't invest in anything as whimsical as miniskirts." In Washington, a notoriously conservative town, fashionable women tend to follow the example of the redoubtable New Jersey Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick, who once was a Vogue editor. According to an aide, "she has never changed her hemline in all the years she has worn suits. She always wears them one inch below the knee." Nor, says a White House watcher, is Nancy Reagan about to be shorn again. In this respect she has an unlikely ally in Italy's Gina Lollobrigida, who at 54 can still flash an eye-popping leg. "Miniskirts," snorts La Lollo, "are ridiculous."

In any case, the era when designers could dictate to women is well past. The emphasis today is on diversity. The real contribution of the mini vogue is to provide an alternative way to dress. "We call it optional impact," says Rita Johnston, fashion coordinator at I. Magnin, Chicago. "So many styles are available this year, from short to quite long, from linear to the prairie adaptation, that no one trend is the order of the day. If you don't want to commit yourself to the shorter length, you have options. This is one of the better seasons for everyone."

For those venturesome women who do opt for the mini, ruffly tops, short sweaters and T shirts are suitable accompaniments. Knee socks, pantyhose and petticoats are also popular accessories. Kamma Sadler, clothing manager for Boston's Shop for Pappagallo, suggests, "You can wear little panties underneath. Something that's attached tc the skirt, so you won't feel naked." In winter, Pierre Cardin puts the mini atop pants or a thick leotard. Kenzo, whose low-waisted minis and blouson tops have been well known for a dozen years, is widely copied.

Few fashion experts, however, think that short hemlines will crowd out pants or longer dresses, particularly for evening. As New York's Oscar de la Renta puts it, "The wonderful thing about life is to have a little variety. You don't want to eat Chinese food every day."

--By Michael Demarest.

Reported by Kathryn Jackson Fallen/ New York and Simonetta Toraldo/ Rome

With reporting by Kathryn Jackson Fallen, Simonetta Toraldo

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