Extremely short skirts became a staple of 20th-century science fiction, particularly in 1940s pulp artwork, such as that by Earle K. Bergey, who depicted futuristic women in a "stereotyped combination" of metallic miniskirt, bra and boots.

[17] Extremely short skirts became a staple of 20th-century science fiction, particularly in 1940s pulp artwork such as that by Earle K. Bergey, who depicted futuristic women in a "stereotyped combination" of metallic miniskirt, bra and boots.

[21] The manager of an unnamed shop in London's Oxford Street began experimenting in 1960 with skirt hemlines an inch above the knees on window mannequins and noted how positively his customers responded.

[22] In August 1961, Life published a photograph of two Seattle students at the University of Hawaiʻi wearing above-the-knee garments called "kookie-muus", an abbreviated version of the traditionally concealing muumuu, and noted a "current teen-age fad for short skirts" that was pushing hemlines well above the knee.

[24] The earliest known reference to the miniskirt is in a humorous 1962 article datelined Mexico City and describing the "mini-skirt" or "Ya-Ya" as a controversial item of clothing that was the latest thing on the production line there.

[28] It would gradually climb upward over the next few years, fully baring the knees of mainstream models in 1964, when both André Courrèges[29] and Mary Quant[30][31] showed above-the-knee lengths, followed shortly thereafter by Rudi Gernreich[32] and Jacques Tiffeau in the US.

[75] Another way youth was indicated in the new short skirts was through using models with slim but muscular legs, as preferred by designers André Courrèges[76][77] and Emanuel Ungaro[78] at the time.

[135] In 2009, a Mary Quant minidress was among the 10 British "design classics" featured on a series of Royal Mail stamps, alongside the Tube map, the Spitfire, and the red telephone box.

[137] The Courrèges look, featuring a knit bodystocking with a gabardine miniskirt slung around the hips, was widely copied and plagiarised, much to the designer's chagrin, and it would be 1967 before he again held a press showing for his work.

[127][135] An alternative origin story for the miniskirt came from Barbara Hulanicki of the London boutique Biba, who recalled that in 1966 she received a delivery of stretchy jersey skirts that had shrunk drastically in transit.

According to Shrimpton, who claimed that the brevity of the skirt was due mainly to Rolfe's having insufficient material, the ensuing controversy was as much as anything to do with her having dispensed with a hat and gloves, seen as essential accessories in such a conservative society.

[160] Organised and run by young men, Vijana was a morality campaign targeting indecent clothing, which led to attacks on women with at least one stoning reportedly triggered by the victim's miniskirt.

[161] In Ethiopia, an attack on women wearing miniskirts triggered a riot of leftist students in which a hundred cars were set on fire and fifty people injured.

[160] In the Soviet Union, miniskirts became widely known after the 1967 Moscow International Fashion Festival, and quickly made their way into popular media, including movies (The Diamond Arm, Afonya, Office Romance;[162] an earlier 1956 film Carnival Night also featured dancers wearing short dresses and a conservative Soviet bureaucrat outraged by their "naked legs"[163]), cartoons (The Bremen Town Musicians) and sci-fi works (i.e. Definitely Maybe and The Final Circle of Paradise), despite strong criticism from senior citizens and attempts to control skirt lengths in public[164][162] (which continued well into the 1980s - for example, hard rock vocalist Elena Sokolova has angered the authorities by wearing an extremely short skirt on stage during her performance at the Rock Panorama '86 [ru] festival[165]).

[164] Short skirts and dresses remain popular in modern day Russia (except for some conservative Muslim regions like Dagestan, where wearing miniskirts is strongly frowned upon and discouraged by travel advisories[166]).

[171] Greer herself wrote in 1969 that: The women kept on dancing while their long skirts crept up, and their girdles dissolved, and their nipples burst through like hyacinth tips and their clothes withered away to the mere wisps and ghosts of draperies to adorn and glorify ...[172]In the earliest seventies, particularly in the US, minis and microminis briefly rebounded in popularity[173] after women's rejection of designers' attempt to impose midiskirts as the sole length in 1970, referred to as "the midi debacle.

"[174][175][176] Women both continued to wear miniskirts and switched even more to trousers,[177][178] and designers, having been made to understand that they would no longer be respected as arbiters,[179][180] followed suit for a couple of years and included minis again,[181][182][183][184] often underneath midis and maxis.

[228][229] Blondie's Deborah Harry had her sixties-ish look provided by fashion designer Stephen Sprouse,[230] who had been responsible for Halston's "skimp" minis of 1974[231] and would become internationally known for his own sixties-revival line during the eighties.

[244][245][246] At this point, these styles were still considered avant-garde, though,[247] and a variety of mostly longer skirts were worn by the public, with the full, calf-length forms that had dominated the mid-seventies still prevalent but beginning to be made slimmer,[248] slightly shorter,[249][250][251] more brightly coloured,[252][253] and often slit.

[300][301] In the spring of 1982 (as featured in the June issue of Time Magazine that year),[citation needed] short skirts began to re-emerge more strongly among the public,[302] notably in the form of "rah-rahs", which were modeled on those worn by female cheerleaders at sporting and other events.

By 1983, miniskirts had become more widespread, but the Kamali-style full versions common in 1981-82 had waned in popularity in favor of slim, straight minis in jean-cut blue denim,[303][304][305] as well as other trim styles.

[353] In the mid-1980s, Azzedine Alaïa began presenting mini and micromini versions of his extremely tight dress designs,[354][355][356] his anatomical seaming and occasional sheer fabrics creating a prurient effect that would never have been seen in sixties miniskirts.

[360] His earlier fitted, curve-accenting skirts, usually in a just-above-the-knee length that sometimes rose to the lower thigh,[361] would be very influential in the second half of the decade, spawning imitations by companies like North Beach Leather[362] and Body Glove.

[124] She described the garment as symbolic of looking forward to future freedom and backwards to a "much more restricted past" and noted that international rises in extreme conservatism and religious fundamentalism had led to an anti-women backlash, some of which was shown through censure and criticism of women wearing "immodest" clothing.

[399] In Africa, one of the main issues with the miniskirt since the 1960s is that it is seen as representative of protest against predominantly male authority, an accusation also applied to trousers for women which are perceived as blurring the gender divide.

[160][161][399] The resurgence of controversial early 2000s trends, including visible thong strings and low-rise jeans, has extended to miniskirts, now seen on both fashion runways and social media platforms like TikTok.

The skirts revival has evoked nostalgia for Y2K icons like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, making it a piece for fashion enthusiasts seeking a contemporary edge with a nod to the past.

Fashion brands like Khaite and Etro are capitalizing on the micro mini skirt trend, driven by customers' nostalgia and desire for a return to sexier styles.

"[410] Critics express concerns over its impracticality due to its extremely short length, while its predominantly showcasing on slender models has prompted calls for more size-inclusive offerings.

[411] Model Jessica Blair highlighted in a TikTok video how clothing options for plus-size individuals were severely limited in the early 2000s, effectively excluding them from fashion.