# How short were women's skirts in 1962 ("X-Men: First Class"-related question) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339 "2011-06-13T18:01:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Edwardina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Edwardina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edwardina)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/21 "2011-06-14T05:17:09Z")
> [@Sycorax](#): > > Hippie wear - long skirts; peasant blouses, lots of beaded jewelry; long, disheveled hair for girls and boys, bell bottom jeans (for girls and boys), and weed. I will take your word for it since you were there, but I didn’t think those things became common until the late 60’s or early 70’s. I was under the impression that long skirts were _after_ minis in the fashion progression …? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/22 "2011-06-14T05:32:03Z")
> [@Edwardina](#): > > I will take your word for it since you were there, but I didn’t think those things became common until the late 60’s or early 70’s. I was under the impression that long skirts were _after_ minis in the fashion progression …? 😕 I too was there, and you’re correct. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/23 "2011-06-14T07:11:51Z")
> [@Edwardina](#): > > I will take your word for it since you were there, but I didn’t think those things became common until the late 60’s or early 70’s. I was under the impression that long skirts were _after_ minis in the fashion progression …? 😕 Whooosh! ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/24 "2011-06-14T07:44:08Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Yeah, but I couldn’t remember if it was being played as being “within” the scene (i.e., a character listening to it) or if the song was being played “over” the scene (i.e., a montage). There’s a term for that: diagetic music. It’s just a factoid that got stuck in my head. As for the OP, not even Mad Men gets all of their fashion 100% time-appropriate, and they’re really trying. I think the creative people behind First Class were clearly going for James Bond’s 60s vs historical spot on. They’re larger than life characters. I wouldn’t want to see them in Pete and Peggy’s season one Mad Men wardrobe. Then we wouldn’t have gotten all of those great Nehru jackets! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/25 "2011-06-14T10:05:42Z")
> [@gytalf2000](#): > > Wow! I’m glad that you pointed that out. The Beatles’ hair really wasn’t long at all in those pics that you posted. And yet, it was shockingly long for their time! Funny! Good rule of thumb. If the hair’s long enough that it touches the ear, it’s long hair. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/26 "2011-06-14T12:25:41Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Good rule of thumb. If the hair’s long enough that it touches the ear, it’s long hair. It wasn’t just the length of the Beatles’ hair; I think the look was inspired by Stu Sutcliffe’s girlfriend, who convinced them to wash the gunk out of their hair & comb it out straight. The hoods of the day had rather long hair, but they covered it with grease & combed it back; as long as it was trimmed at the neck, it didn’t look long… ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/27 "2011-06-14T13:59:20Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > It wasn’t just the length of the Beatles’ hair; I think the look was inspired by Stu Sutcliffe’s girlfriend, who convinced them to wash the gunk out of their hair & comb it out straight. The hoods of the day had rather long hair, but they covered it with grease & combed it back; as long as it was trimmed at the neck, it didn’t look long… Wow! Now that you mention that, I do remember reading something about the origin of the Beatles’ hairstyle, to that effect. So we have the late, great Stu Sutcliffe’s girlfriend to thank for this wildly popular (for a while, anyway) “moptop” look. It was gloriously “fab”! Ha! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/28 "2011-06-14T14:44:51Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > You are absolutely correct. In 1962 skirts were a good few/several inches below the knee or at the calf. > > Kneelength skirts and shorter came after 1965. By the very early 1970s micromini skirts were common on the young. That isn’t how it was. I was around at the time. You are off by several years. Mid-calf length was Mamie Eisenhower '50s, originally Dior New Look of the late '40s. 1965 was the year hemlines started to rise above the knee. It was hugely scandalous at first. It was 1965 in London on Carnaby Street but by '67 it had caught on across America. So far I am the only one who has posted actual pics from 1962 to document the subject factually. Clearly showing Jackie with a knee-length hemline and also 1 inch longer than knee-length. That was the range in '62. I got argued with, for reasons that aren’t clear to me, but I’m right and I have proven it. Nobody but nobody (except for preschoolers/kindergartners) wore hemlines above the knee in 1962. My Mom was in her twenties in 1962 and we have lots of pics of her from those days in Jackie-inspired fashions with knee-length hemlines. In between the '50s and the hippie era, i.e. during the Kennedy administration, hemlines were knee-length or very slightly longer. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/29 "2011-06-14T15:33:04Z")
> [@Sycorax](#): > > Okay, I confess – I was in my early twenties in 1962, and the answer is: no, mini-skirts were not in vogue at that time. What was in vogue? Hippie wear - long skirts; peasant blouses, lots of beaded jewelry; long, disheveled hair for girls and boys, bell bottom jeans (for girls and boys), and weed. As Gary T said, absolutely not. The only time the average kid in America saw this was in the pages of Life magazine when they took pictures of them weirdo San Francisco hippies. The Summer of Love styles moved slowly across America. In 1967 we boys started to grow out hair a bit longer, maybe to the length of those early Beatles pictures. Long shaggy hair probably didn’t become normal until after Woodstock. (And remember that at least half the country hated hippies and would beat up boys with long hair. I went to college with guys who still had crew cuts.) My high school did not allow jeans to be worn until 1968. Girls could not wear pants of any kind. This was universal in the area, not something from a strict or conservative school. Bell bottoms didn’t become ordinary wear until the early 1970s. College students in 1968 looked more like early 60s Beach Boys than like hippies. You know what was big? [Madras shirts.](http://coolmaterial.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/gitman-vintage-madras-check-shirt.jpg) Hippie schmippie. The changeover seems instantaneous in retrospect and in fact it happened over the course of my college career, which is lightning speed for cultural change. But as I’ve said in many similar threads, in the real world of the average American the vast majority of the things people now remember as “sixties” didn’t take place until the early 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/30 "2011-06-14T15:48:07Z")
When my sister was in high school (class of 64) the test for if a girl’s skirt was too short was to have the girl get down on her knees. The hem had to touch the ground or there was a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/31 "2011-06-14T16:53:42Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > In between the '50s and the hippie era, i.e. during the Kennedy administration, hemlines were knee-length or very slightly longer. [Not so fast.](http://vintagepatterns.wikia.com/wiki/Vogue_1962) By no means minis, but clearly a little knee was acceptable in 1962. If you missed the sarcasm of my previous reply, using the First Lady as an example of current fashion for the under 30 crowd is pretty silly. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/32 "2011-06-14T17:25:03Z")
> [@Sycorax](#): > > Okay, I confess – I was in my early twenties in 1962, and the answer is: no, mini-skirts were not in vogue at that time. What was in vogue? Hippie wear - long skirts; peasant blouses, lots of beaded jewelry; long, disheveled hair for girls and boys, bell bottom jeans (for girls and boys), and weed. You must have been smoking too much weed. “Hippie wear” was still a few years off in '62. Things like bell bottoms didn’t get popular until around '65. > [@Rick](#): > > When my sister was in high school (class of 64) the test for if a girl’s skirt was too short was to have the girl get down on her knees. The hem had to touch the ground or there was a problem. This. I graduated in '63, and I remember girls getting sent home to change if their skirts didn’t touch the floor when they knelt. So the answer is: just below the knees. Miniskirts were a few years later. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/33 "2011-06-14T17:39:41Z")
I was born in 1960, and I hit puberty in the early 1970s. I definitely remember appreciating girls in short skirts (also, in hot pants!) when I was in sixth and seventh grade. By that time, quite a number of boys wore their hair fairly long, as well. I knew that I had seen images of such attire and hairstyles from various media (TV, magazines, etc.) in the preceding years, but by the early 1970s, mainstream America had definitely adopted these fashions. ---
**Author:** ![gatorslap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gatorslap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gatorslap)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/34 "2011-06-14T17:53:35Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > When my sister was in high school (class of 64) the test for if a girl’s skirt was too short was to have the girl get down on her knees. The hem had to touch the ground or there was a problem. Doesn’t the fact that they had to have this ‘test’ imply that there were, in fact, shorter skirts, and they weren’t that uncommon? ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/35 "2011-06-14T18:02:18Z")
> [@gatorslap](#): > > Doesn’t the fact that they had to have this ‘test’ imply that there were, in fact, shorter skirts, and they weren’t that uncommon? Hmmm… Good point! ---
**Author:** ![Deegeea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Deegeea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deegeea)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/36 "2011-06-14T18:32:32Z")
Fashion designers were trying out miniskirts in the early 60s. Andre Courreges featured them in 1962. Antonio (painter) had a somewhat famous painting of fashionable young women in minidresses in 1963, McCall’s had patterns for minidresses in 1963. But they didn’t really catch on till later as stated above. The alternate history of miniskirts catching on in 1962 seems very reasonable though. What would a butterfly flapping its wings change but something so seemingly random as fashion? It was high time for miniskirts to come back into style, since they’d been out for a while (since flappers I guess)… ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/37 "2011-06-14T18:36:00Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > [Not so fast.](http://vintagepatterns.wikia.com/wiki/Vogue_1962) By no means minis, but clearly a little knee was acceptable in 1962. If you missed the sarcasm of my previous reply, using the First Lady as an example of current fashion for the under 30 crowd is pretty silly. Those examples are top-of-the-knee length. I must be the only person who still hasn’t seen the movie from the OP, so I don’t know how high are the hemlines in the movie. But I doubt top of the knee would be radical enough to provoke a thread on the subject, unless the OP had been expecting to see mid-calf lengths from the early '50s. What does the preponderance of data say? The book [_Advertising to the American Woman, 1900-1999_](http://books.google.com/books?id=HY5qgKfwmsEC&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=1962+hemlines&source=bl&ots=HmJT6mAm3O&sig=-wLW9iAQf26mQsh7UUYcxzjKz58&hl=en&ei=c6b3TYPWOMj0gAfW6f3_Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&sqi=2&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=1962%20hemlines&f=false) surprisingly says that the miniskirt actually first appeared in British _Vogue_ in 1962, but looking around, all indications are that it was never seen outside certain hip areas of London that early on, and definitely not in America. The same book then states: > [@](#): > > In fact, through the mid-1960s hemlines for most American women stayed just at, or even below knee level—where skirt lengths had been 20 years earlier during World War II [http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro\_style/60s/60s\_fashion.html](http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_style/60s/60s_fashion.html) > [@](#): > > In the first half of the 60s, for women’s fashion, the look of the late fifties remained. It was all about the glamour of American movies. By 1963, when [this photograph](http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_style/60s/mod_fashions_1963.jpg), right, was taken, the wide skirts of the 50s had disappeared, but the look was still formal. The two girls in this picture look very grown up. The look was adult and glamorous, \*\*there was no real attempt to look that different from the older generation. \*\* (bolding mine) > **[FactRetriever.com | Interesting Facts for the Curious Mind](https://www.factretriever.com/)** > > The Web's most authoritative and professional source for interesting facts covering the major branches of knowledge. > [@](#): > > Before the 1960s, young women had been expected to dress in the style of their mothers, which was usually loosely based on Parisian couture. For example, as late as 1962, a Sears catalog portrayed mothers and daughters as “patchwork pals” who were overjoyed that they are wearing identical dresses. [http://www.scribd.com/doc/46284890/Hemline-Indicator](http://www.scribd.com/doc/46284890/Hemline-Indicator) The graph in this study places 1962 hemlines at 18 inches above the floor. Which is… ::gets out tape measure::… well, what do you know, bottom of the knee length. Consider me vindicated. If young women dressed like their moms in 1962, considering that Jackie was an extraordinarily powerful style-setter that year, the like of which we never saw again until Michelle Obama—it follows that as First Lady, Jackie was a powerful style-setter for young women too. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/38 "2011-06-14T19:15:58Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Those examples are top-of-the-knee length. So you acknowledge that you were wrong when you wrote: “during the Kennedy administration, hemlines were knee-length or very slightly longer” Of course any mini skirts in a movie that takes place in 1962 are anachronistic but saying that because the First Lady (even Jackie!) didn’t wear one is a silly way of making the argument. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/39 "2011-06-14T19:25:11Z")
[NYC fashions, 1962](http://gothamist.com/2010/09/13/flashback_new_york_city_fashion_194.php#photo-12). Unless you were a little girl in a plaid dress & tights, hemlines were at the knee or a bit lower. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339/40 "2011-06-14T19:37:33Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > So you acknowledge that you were wrong when you wrote: “during the Kennedy administration, hemlines were knee-length or very slightly longer” No way, I wasn’t wrong. All you’ve come up with is one drawing from a pattern package. I’ve backed up what I said with photographs from real life and several cites (as **Bridget Burke** also has). Could the OP describe the height of hemlines in the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it, or share a pic from it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-short-were-womens-skirts-in-1962-x-men-first-class-related-question/585339.md?page=3)