Another classic idea which goes towards proving that the sixties didn't really start swinging until 1966. The mini skirt hit the market in that year and swept the world pretty quickly.
pleated skirts set on a hip yoke basque were worn with short sleeved over blouses which were cut not unlike the shell tops of today. Straight skirts had front and back inverted pleats called kick pleats and were ideal for doing the twist dance craze as they allowed the knee to move freely. Straight sweater dresses in lambswool or the synthetic acrylic variety called Orlon were worn belted with waists nipped in became fashionable.
Pencil skirts were still worn with sweaters or even back to front cardigans that had been pressed super flat. Before the days of tumble driers many women lay their washed rung out knitwear in paper tissue and then brown paper. They put it to dry under a carpet for two days. When it was removed from the tissue, the footsteps that had pounded over the knit gave it a flat dry cleaned as new appearance. Laundering of delicates could still be a problem, but everything changed when mass produced synthetic garments arrived. Whilst Mary Quant didn't necessarily invent the mini she certainly popularised it.
By 1966 she was producing short waist skimming mini dresses and skirts that were set 6 or 7 inches above the knee. In 1965 she had taken the idea from the 1964 designs by Courrèges and liking the shorter styles she made them even shorter for her boutique Bazaar. She is rightly credited with making popular a style that had not taken off when it made its earlier debut.
Quant found London girls seeking newness only too willing to try her new daring short mini skirt. The fashion trend took off because it was so different and to wear it well you had to be youthful to get away with an outfit that was so controversial particularly among adults. The Quant style was soon known as the Chelsea Look.
