The Long & the Short: Is the Hemline Index ‘Accurate’?
In his book, Morris published a graph that goes from 1921 to 1977, the year the volume was published. Long in ‘21, shorter until 1929, even if only slightly, then the hems would lengthen after the global crisis, remaining more or less long with some small ascents.
In 1948, the skirts were very long; then from 1950 they grew shorter — only by a centimetre or two though — and then, they went down to calf-length in ‘67, ‘68 and ‘69. They also became long in 1971 with the oil crisis, and short again during the ‘80s Euphoria.
The Hemline Index was accurate in 1987, when designers switched from miniskirts to floor-length skirts just before the market crashed, while short skirts were in vogue in the 1990s, when the tech bubble was increasing.
Morris also explains that designers have tried several times to oppose this relationship between economy and length of the dress — when the stock market goes up, skirts follow, and when the stock goes down, skirts too — but always with disastrous results.
So, let’s go with the flow.
Rome, Italy, 20 days ago. There is not visible destruction or rubble, and the sky is blue, but the roads are empty. A lady walks down the street, wearing her personal homage to the T-Bar suit: a wide Miu Miu skirt with an underskirt and crinoline, and an old Prada jacket resembling the style of the early ’50s.
Her personal homage to the T-Bar suit, her personal homage to hope. The hope to once again see roads full of people, and many, many girls wearing mini-skirts. The hope to know that, finally, the war is over.
(Francesca Marino is a journalist and a South Asia expert who has written ‘Apocalypse Pakistan’ with B Natale. Her latest book is ‘Balochistan — Bruised, Battered and Bloodied’. She tweets at @francescam63. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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