Skirts

Discover the iconic dresses that defined a century of women's fashion and empowerment in this beautifully illustrated social history.

While women's liberation has often been framed by the growing acceptance of pants, the most influential female fashions of the 20th century featured skirts. Skirts traces the shifting roles of women through the era's game-changing styles, from suffragists marching in skirts to Civil Rights heroines taking a stand in them. Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe revolutionized modern art in skirts, while Marie Curie won two Nobel Prizes in hers. When NASA put a man on the moon, "the computer wore a skirt," said mathematician Katherine G. Johnson.

As women made strides towards equality, their wardrobes evolved with them. Designers like Mariano Fortuny, Coco Chanel, Jean Patou, and Diane von Furstenberg redefined femininity for a new era with innovations like the little black dress, the Bar Suit, and lesser-known creations like the Taxi dress or Pop-Over dress. These influential garments illuminate the times in which they were first worn—and the women who wore them—while continuing to shape contemporary fashion and even opening the door for a genderfluid future.

At once an authoritative work of history and a delightfully entertaining romp through decades of fashion, Skirts charts the changing fortunes, freedoms, and aspirations of women themselves.