What designer came up with the rather silly idea of wearing a poodle on your skirt?
Someone asked me at the New Year’s Eve Party ( Like I have my SDMB in my pocket right then and there, TYVM) and I thought I would post it here to see if anyone out there knows the history behind this french dog making it on the skirts of the women in the fifties.
The little research I’ve done indicates that the poodle skirt was a design created by teenyboppers themselves, the kind of thing they could make in Home Economics. (The female version of the boys’ spice rack in Wood Shop.)
don’t recall where they came from but it sure as hell wasn’t home ec. i know of no one who made one then & have only seen handmade ones now that were obviously recent & probably made for a retro party or something. do recall that i wanted one desperately as they were such a rage, & i’ve never been one to follow the crowd’s tastes.
I seem to remember seeing them worn sometimes with matching sweaters with another poodle on them, and the two poodles would be attached by a leash. This of course gives no insight into who thought up the idea but is maybe a clue as to “why poodles?”
“Welcome to the Knowledgeum, I’m Troy McClure. You may remember me from such automated information kiosks as ‘Welcome to Springfield Airport’ and ‘Where’s Nordstrom?’”
Why Saddle Shoes? Who knows the whims of the pre-70s young?
The Poodle Skirts also had, at times, a leash, just as a previous poster stated, but it could be used to join two skirt wearers together, like in best friends. Petticoats were worn under the skirts to puff them out some and ‘headlight’ bras – stiff, pointy cones – were the wear of the day.
Some men I know from that era say that they still miss the rustle of the skirts when the girls walked with them and miss the girls smoothing down those skirts when they sat in cars or chairs.
For years here there was a REXALL drug store which still had the 1950s soda fountain that was so popular years ago, but, sadly, one day the store moved and the new owners ripped the fountain out to make room for clothing racks. As a little girl, I dimly recall walking downtown with my folks just after sunset to go to a show and walking past the REXALL and seeing boys and girls in there sucking down malts, ice cream sodas and the guy or girl behind the counter in a stiff, white uniform.
I think you all watch way too much television. 
Peace,
mangeorge (b. 1945)
Wow, 00, I made it!
My mom said she had one of these skirts which she had decorated with a basket of flowers. The important thing was the fullness of the skirt (they were also called circle skirts, because the pattern was basically a circle, with a hole in the center), and the many layers of petticoats underneath. They were considered very spiffy for dancing, roller skating, etc.
My sister had a poodle skirt—if I recall correctly, it had two poodles, a little house and a fence. Maybe flowers, too.
No bullet-bra, though; she was only about ten at the time! But yeah, acres of stiff, itchy crinoline petticoats to hold the skirt out. I came along a few years after the poodle-skirt era, so I never got to wear 'em . . .