Fashion Trends and the Circle Skirt
The lifting of the restrictions of the World War 2 led to the increased popularity in rocking the circle skirt, back in the 1950's. Fashion changed from the usual pencil skirt shape and skirts became fuller, and hemlines dropped, and this was referred to as the circle skirt. The circle skirt came in many different varieties like the poodle skirt or the conversation. The reason as to why the Mexican skirt especially grew so big in popularity was because of the fact that Hollywood actresses like Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Hepburn and Jayne Mansfield rocked it right after they had paid a visit to Mexico. The way that this design was made was that a large piece of material was used, which was then cut in a full circle, allowing a more feminine and dramatic shape. For the Mexican ones, they were trimmed with sequins, hand painted or made with fabrics that were more eye catching and brighter too.
Around this same time, there was some opera singer named Julie Lynne Charlot who wanted a Christmas dress and was struggling to raise the money for it. Her mother was an owner of a factory that used felt, so she decided to use a large piece of this felt to make a skirt then placed some appliques that were holiday themed on it. This Circle Skirt immediately became a completely huge hit and she started to design such skirts for her own friends, and later selling them at a boutique in Beverly Hills. There was a tremendous growth in popularity of the skirt as the boutique soon ran out of the Christmas themed ones, and then they requested for other versions like the dog themes that were mostly suggested, and that is in short how the invention of the poodle skirt came to be.
She also added petticoats underneath so as to get a full effect and also distinct between the fuller skirts and the narrow waists. Designers then picked up in this trend by designing the full circle dresses, then the poodle skirt version that was the rock and roll teenagers claimed as their own. These skirts then began to disappear in the late 1950's and by mid 1960's the mini skirt had already replaced it in popularity.
Crinoline is the piece put underneath the skirt so that it can achieve the fullness of the 50's hourglass shape. Crinoline acts as an enhancement to more bounce and jazz when turning around during dancing. Usually, this crinoline is made from fabrics combination such as cotton, organdy, nylon and netting. Most of the time the waist is elastic, but some of them have a snap closure or a drawstring.
Posted on January 9th, 2015