Whatever their age, women prove they can carry off a mini skirt

Sep 8 2009 by Liz Lamb, The Journal

Hemlines are on the up as more women dare to bare in miniskirts no matter what their age. Liz Lamb speaks to three North East women about their love affair with the mini.

SUPERMODEL Elle Macpherson may be 46 but she is no stranger to putting her pins on show. She was recently snapped in a figure-hugging Herve Leger gold lame dress with a hemline that barely covered her bottom.

The model and businesswoman is not alone.

Even 51-year-old Sharon Stone is often snapped in a mini along with Jennifer Aniston, 40, Kate Moss, 35, Courtney Love, 44 and 34-year-old mum-of-three Victoria Beckham.

But it’s not just celebrities who dare to bare.

New research has found that British women now regard it as perfectly acceptable to wear a mini skirt up until the age of 40.

It’s a major shift in acceptable social dress, showing that women now spend more of their lives in skimpy clothing for longer than ever before, says fashion chain Debenhams, who commissioned the study.

Just 20 years ago, few women would dare to wear a mini skirt after the age of 33 for fear of being branded “mutton dressed as lamb”, the figures show.

Debenhams’ spokesman Ed Watson says: “It shows that women now have an increasing confidence in their bodies and are happy to dress accordingly.

“If this trend continues, there’s no doubt that, within the next decade, women in their mid 40s and early 50s will rightly regard a mini skirt as an essential part of their everyday wardrobe.”

The new figures emerged when Debenhams examined the latest age profile of women buying short 36cm skirts over the past six months.

Their results show that this has jumped from an average age of 36 years old at the start of millennium to an average of 40 today.

Figures from 1980 showed that on average women stopped buying mini skirts when they reached 33 years old – a figure unchanged from the mid 1960s.

Experts believe that the popularity of intensive gym culture, providing women with well toned bodies for longer may be responsible for the rise.

The increasing number of British women living on their own may also be a factor.

The Debenhams study shows that a modern woman’s love affair with a mini skirt begins at the age of 14 – but she doesn’t buy her first mini skirt until the age of 16.

Instead, they flout school rules by rolling up the waistband of their school uniforms to give the impression of wearing a mini skirt.

Skirts get shorter between the ages of 16 and 19, reducing in size from 46cms to 36cms before reaching their shortest – a mere 32cms – at the age of 23.

Skirt length increases slightly between the ages of 23 and 27, rising to 37cms, possibly due to girls being in their first stable relationship, with no desire to attract attention.