A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the
waist and covers all or part of the legs. In the western world, skirts are
usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions. The kilt is
a traditional men's garment in Scotland, and some fashion designers, such as
Jean-Paul Gaultier, have shown men's skirts.
At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of
a single piece of material (such as pareos), but most skirts are fitted to the
body at the waist and fuller below, with the fullness introduced by means of
dart, gores, pleats, or panels. Modern skirts are usually made of light to
mid-weight fabrics, such as denim, jersey, worsted, or poplin. Skirts of thin
or clingy fabrics are often worn with slips to make the material of the skirt
drape better and for modesty.
The hemline of skirts varies according to the personal taste
of the wearer which can be influenced by such factors as social context,
fashion, and cultural conceptions of modesty. Some medieval upper-class women
wore skirts over three meters in diameter at the bottom. At the other extreme,
the miniskirts of the 1960s were minimal garments that may have barely covered
the underwear when seated. Costume historians typically use the word
"petticoat" to describe skirt-like garments of the 18th century or
earlier.
