Waists were accentuated and there was no stinting on material. Shapes were feminine and powerful. Come the Fifties, that power had translated into playful circle skirts with layer upon layer of petticoats as well as their counterpart: the figure-hugging pencil cut. But perhaps the most revolutionary era was the late 1960s. Alongside the rise of the teenager, rock‘n’roll, and a mood of rebellion, hemlines were shorter than ever before, thanks to the now iconic Mary Quant mini. Fashion never looked back. Even with the arrival of rah-rah skirts in the 1980s, the preppy plaid of Clueless in the 90s and the ultra-low-rise skirts of the early 2000s, in the West, each and every one of these hemlines was well above the knee. And while short skirts are here to stay, they have been pushed to the back corners of wardrobes.

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