Remember the mini-skirt?

I am old enough to remember the mini-skirt but I never wore one. I never wore a maxi-skirt either. The closest I came to "psychedelic" colours was a second hand t-shirt my mother "tie-dyed" in an attempt to cover the stains.

There was a "dress code" at the teacher training college I attended.  Any girl wearing trousers of any sort or a mini-skirt or anything else considered "inappropriate" would be reprimanded and advised and there would be a (black) mark on her record. That was not what stopped me. 

I had two dresses in which to go to college. They were both made from "remnants" of fabric found in the "bargain basement" of a major department store. One remnant had cost 95c and the other $1.20. There was just enough fabric to make plain "a-line" garments which, very daringly, ended the regulation "two inches above the knee". Most of the other girls had more clothes than I did but, like mine, they were mostly made at home. We had the cheap chain store mass produced garments by then but they were not considered good enough for college. People still sewed as a matter of course.

Looking back on this now I wonder at the way we just accepted the dress regulations - especially when the "Dean of Women", who was also in charge of "Physical Education" got around most of the time in a comfortable track suit.

So Mary Quant was someone most of my fellow female students found fascinating and quite, quite daring. The girls doing Home Economics would try designing similar things. If they made them they made them at home. The rest of us saw the sketches.

I confess I was not terribly interested in any of this. Given the choice I would have worn trousers. Skirts are a nuisance if you rely on pedal power.  I did observe however. One of my fellow students was "caught" one weekend wearing a mini-mini skirt. It barely covered the essential parts. She might have been at a social event not in any way related to the college but she was "informed" it was "unacceptable". I often wonder what happened to her. I somehow doubt she went on to a career in teaching. She was there because, like so many others, she wasn't quite sure what to do with her life. 

And then one of the girls came to college one day in a patchwork skirt. She had made it herself, probably with some help from her grandmother. Her grandmother, a dressmaker by profession, helped her make her other clothes and the rest of us were envious. The patchwork skirt was different, very different. It was absolutely in keeping with the regulations but it was eye-catching. Mary Quant designs had nothing on that skirt. 

It fitted perfectly.T... wore it with style. "That must have cost a bit," I remember someone saying as T.... walked off to a lecture.

I smiled to myself. In it were two small pieces of fabric left over from my two dresses. T... had collected pieces from all over the place and made the skirt. It had cost her 30c for the piece of fabric she had used as a backing. The zip was one I had found in my grandmother's old sewing box, the button from her button box. I had given them to T... to use.  We never said a word to the other girls.

I saw T... recently. She still makes her own clothes, still dresses with style. People think she spends a lot on her clothes but she doesn't. She never cared for the mini-skirt though. "It doesn't use enough fabric to be useful," she used to say.

Perhaps she was right. It was daring at the time but it went out. It never looked comfortable.

I think I will stick to trousers.