Reminiscent of "other women", but also reminiscent of "women with power", the pencil skirt has a kaleidoscope of looks, but also a surprising origin. Vogue traces its history for you.
Pencil skirts have long captured the imagination, evoking adoration and dismay in equal measure, and their loyal followers have included femme fatales, intellectual writers, and movie stars since ancient times.
The origins of the pencil dress lie in a rather peculiar story from 1908: When Lady Edith Berg became the first American woman to fly on an airplane, she tied a rope around her ankles to prevent the dress from fluttering away.
The incident is rumored to have sparked the totter dress trend - although French haute couture designer Poix Beauliet says he invented the design himself.
Whatever the truth, in later years the look of a dress that narrowed dramatically near the calf, forcing its wearer to move in tiny steps, became popular -- and mercilessly mocked.Caricatures attack the vanity of putting appearance before action; Streetcars in New York and Los Angeles have added "stagger skirt friendly cars." The trend was short-lived, and women quickly ditched the shambles in favor of skirts that were easy to move around and had shorter hemlines.
The pencil skirt as we know it now came out many decades later in 1954, when Christian Dior's H-line dress collection provided another new dress shape for modern women.
Its name comes from its shape, which resembles the capital letter "H", with a straight skirt and a slight emphasis on the waist.
Its benefits are that it can make a woman's legs look longer and make the curve of the hips more noticeable. It also offers a slimmer, more streamlined option for those who are bored by the excess fabric and rustling pretty lace in the New Look. Of course, it's not all Dior's doing.
The predecessor of the H-line skirt appeared earlier in the 1940s in a more "square" look. A prime example is Lauren Bacall's look in the film Escape To Have and Have Not, as well as the work of other contemporary designers - particularly Cristobal Balenciaga. Balenciaga tailors according to the curve of the body, rather than relying on padding or bustle racks.
The pencil skirt became the defining garment of the 1950s and early 1960s. It can represent luxury fashion, like the lime green pencil skirt worn by Grace Kelly in the movie Rear Window. It can be sexy, like Sophia Loren with a strap top and a tight jacket. It can be a smart, elegant black, like it was on Audrey Hepburn. For Marilyn Monroe, it represented an aesthetic: a dress that was said to evoke a certain eroticism projected on a woman, paired perfectly with a tight sweater or a crisp white shirt, and accentuated her protruding hourglass figure.
Like the wimp dress, once in a pencil skirt you have to walk in a unique way -- see Monroe's most emblematic wriggling step in "Some Like It Hot," her role as the wide-eyed girl in the film -- Sugar Kane moves around provocatively in this form-fitting, narrow dress.
When it comes to mobility, pencil skirts restrict steps and place particular emphasis on certain parts of the body, which can't help but be associated with a deliberate display of female attractiveness and empowerment. No wonder Betty Rizzo in Grease and Joan Harris in Mad Men wear pencil skirts, or Joan Corinth in Dynasty.
When it's made of leather or latex, it can be erotic or daring (or both), and at the snap of a hand it can be a fetish evoking outfit - think of Dita Von Teese, or the cross-dressing queen's shiny red opening look on RuPaul's Drag Race.
In fact, the pencil skirt was also a forerunner and member of the slim-fit dress that became popular in the 2000s and 2010s - a prime example being the Kardashian Clan's preference for tight fabrics and curvy clothing designs.
In contrast, the pencil skirt was seen in the 1950s and 1960s as a very practical garment: a fashionable work uniform for women, especially when the back had pleats to increase mobility.
For many, pencil skirts are still a staple of their office wardrobe, often favored by figures in public roles such as Meghan Markle and Michelle Obama.
On those occasions, pencil skirts have a particularly neutral and chic look, which has been shown recently on the runways by designers such as Victoria Beckham and Rejina Pyo.
Sexy or serious, lax or refined, loved or hated, the pencil skirt is worn by everyone from the teenage girls who decided to challenge their parents in the 1950s to the fashionable drag queens of today, and it's clearly not that simple of an outfit.
It has always been questioned in certain areas, such as mobility, appearance, and gender - such as the neutral pink pencil skirt from Art School's Autumn/Winter '19 collection - so it's no wonder that it continues to inspire designers, albeit "one small step" at a time.