Hemline

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The hemline of a garment is its lower edge. The term most often refers to the lower edge of a skirt or dress.

The hemline is perhaps the most variable style line in fashion, changing shape and ranging in height from hip-high to floor-length. What is a fashionable style and height of hemline has varied considerably throughout the years, and has also depended on a number of factors such as the age of the wearer, the occasion for which the garment is worn and the choice of the individual.

[edit] Types of hemlines

Similar to necklines and waistlines, hemlines can be grouped by their height and shape:

• floor-length hemlines
• ankle hemlines
• midcalf hemlines
• below-knee hemlines
• above-knee hemlines
• mid-thigh hemlines
• hip-high hemlines
• handkerchief hemlines
• diagonal hemlines
• other hemlines

[edit] History

In the history of Western fashion, the ordinary public clothes of upper- and middle-class women varied only between floor-length and slightly above ankle-length for many centuries before World War I. Skirts of lower-calf or mid-calf length were associated with the practical working garments of lower-class or pioneer women, while even shorter skirt lengths were seen only in certain specialized and restricted contexts (e.g. sea-bathing costumes, or outfits worn by ballerinas on stage). It was not until the mid-1910s that hemlines began to rise significantly (with many variations in height thereafter). Skirts rose all the way from floor-length to near knee-length in only about fifteen years (from late in the decade of the 1900s to the mid-1920s). From WW1 to roughly 1970, a woman had to wear skirts near their currently-fashionable length or be considered almost hopelessly unstylish, but since the 1970s, women's options have widened, and there is no longer really only one single fashionable skirt-length at a time.