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Walking in tight pencil skirts & heels


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Old 13-05-2010, 15:04
Victor Meldew
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Join Date: May 2010
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When the straight skirt (Pencil skirt) first appeared in the fifties, it was intended to be smart wear for adult ladies.
The skirt was calf-length and usually had a small knife pleat at the back to aid walking, it was slim-fitting rather than tight, the skirt was just wide enough at the hemline to allow the wearer to walk with small steps, which was all that was required of it by the ladies who wore it.
Most women who wore this skirt in the fifties, worked in shops and offices and did not need great freedom of movement to carry out their daily tasks. If they could not do something because of their narrow skirt, they ether got a man to help them or they simply did not do it.
Because of the limited movement that a straight skirt afforded the wearer, it was deemed to be unsuitable and too 'old' for teenage girls, most mothers would not let their daughters wear it.

It all started to go wrong in the late fifties when the straight skirt had now became so established that it was allowed to be worn as school uniform by the senior girls. A straight skirt was now a 'must have' item for girls in their last year at school as it distinguished them from the junior girls.
A farcical situation developed were a limiting skirt, designed as smart wear for adult women was now being worn by teenage girls, who were trying to carry on in it like they were wearing jeans!
The girls of course had modified their school skirts. The kick pleat was cut out and the centre back seam closed down to the hemline, some girls even took in the side seams to make the skirt tighter. School regulations stipulated that skirts had to be long enough to cover the knees when they girls sat down and slits were not allowed. This of course made the skirts very tricky to wear, and as they were cheaply made and were now too tight, it was very easy to over-stress them at the hemline and break a seam. (There were no strong Polyester fabrics in those days)

In answer to the original post regarding skirts breaking at the seams, straight skirts were very easy to break in the fifties, girls used to sew a loop of ribbon inside the hemline turn-up of their straight skirts to strengthen the hemline and stop the seam breaking. The inch wide polyester ribbon that you can get nowadays would be ideal for the job.
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Old 15-05-2010, 12:38
GoldGlitterGal
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: In front of my laptop.
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The only 'problem' I encounter are the stares that I get from the pencil skirt hugging my J-Lo ar$e
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