The miniskirt was the defining fashion symbol of "Swinging London" in the 1960s. It was street fashion. Hemlines rose above the knee in 1961, and over the next couple of years designers such as John Bates, Yves Saint Laurent and Mary Quant played with the idea.

Ernestine Carter (then fashion editor of the Sunday Times) declared 1963 the Year of the Leg. André Courrèges, in his 1964 Paris collection, is credited by some as “inventing” the miniskirt, but what he did with his Space Age collection was bring it into couture fashion, which helped to publicise the idea and make it universal.

The mini skirt's existence in the 1960s is generally credited to the fashion designer Mary Quant, who was inspired by the Mini automobile, although the French designer André Courrèges is also often cited as its inventor (the French referred to it as la mini-jupe), and there is disagreement as to who invented it first. Some give the credit to Helen Rose, who made some miniskirts for actress Anne Francis in the 1956 science fiction movie, Forbidden Planet.

	Singer Mary Hopkin

Marit Allen, a Vogue editor, has stated: "John Bates, in particular, has always been completely unappreciated for his contribution to the innovation and creativity he brought to the London design scene." He bared the midriff, used transparent vinyl and, Marit Allen asserts, was responsible for the raising of the hemline rather than Mary Quant or Courrèges, who was responsible for the miniskirt.

Bates' costumes and accessories for Diana Rigg, as Emma Peel in the ABC-TV series, The Avengers, from 1965-7, helped to define "Mod style."  As The Avengers' filmed episodes were made several months before screening, Avengers producer Brian Clemens confirmed in interviews that the miniskirt designed by Bates was a "gamble," since they did not know if it would catch on in public or be seen as a fashion failure by the time the episodes aired. However, Emma Peel's fashions were accepted by the public and even spawned a line of replicas of her clothes for public sale. Another more "immediate" proponent of the miniskirt on television was Cathy McGowan, who introduced the weekly British rock music show, Ready Steady Go! (1964-6).

Mary Quant ran a popular clothes shop in the Kings Road, Chelsea, London called Bazaar, from which she sold her own designs. In the late 1950s she began experimenting with shorter skirts, which resulted in the miniskirt in 1965.

Owing to Quant's position in the heart of fashionable "Swinging London", the miniskirt was able to spread beyond a simple street fashion into a major international trend. Its acceptance was greatly boosted by Jean Shrimpton's wearing a short white shift dress, made by Colin Rolfe, on 30th October 1965 at Derby Day, first day of the annual Melbourne Cup Carnival in Australia, where it caused a sensation (right).

According to Shrimpton, who claimed that the brevity of the skirt was due mainly to Rolfe's having insufficient material, the ensuring controversy was as much as anything to do with her having dispensed with a hat and gloves, seen as the essential accessories in such conservative society.

Celebrities were quick to pick up the trend and it was an image that the media loved, giving the miniskirt the nickname “the gymslip of the permissive society”. Cathy McGowan, a style guru for the nation since 1963, when she began presenting the pop show Ready Steady Go, wore them on television, while models Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton sported them all over the broadsheets' fashion pages.

The miniskirt was a truly populist look that most people could have a go at. If they couldn’t find it in the shops, they turned up their old skirts or just took a pair of scissors to them!  When Cathy McGowan threatened to wear a long skirt on Ready Steady Go, she prompted the formation of the British Society for the Preservation of the Miniskirt. In September 1966, the Society demonstrated outside Christian Dior’s fashion show, where the new collection featured a return to long coats and dresses. The small band of demonstrators carried banners proclaiming “Miniskirts Forever” and “Support the Mini”. Their president, Bill Scharf, was quoted as saying that the Society existed “for the good of mankind”.

The new assertiveness represented by the miniskirt meant that fashion had to offer much more choice. No one look could be imposed on trendsetters. The supremacy of Paris as the capital of fashion was overthrown, London was the inspiration for the decade. Although its fun-loving lifestyle undeniably had an influence on other major UK cities, such as Liverpool, the miniskirt revolution didn’t travel as fast or as far as one might think.

Mary Turner reports that “in Cumbria, I was warned against wearing ‘London’ fashions while in the north because the ‘men were hungry’.”  Australia's skirt lengths were by no means over the knee, even by the mid-1960s, and four inches above the knee was the safest length to wear all over Europe.

Author Tom Robbins declared that the miniskirt proves you can “stitch a zeitgeist into a few square inches of cloth”. As rebellions go, the miniskirt was not a dry, political statement, rather it was provocative, playful and, above all, sexy.

The miniskirt was followed up in the late 1960s by the even shorter micro skirt, which has been referred to derogatorily as a belt or pelmet. Upper garments, such as rugby shirts, were sometimes adapted as mini-dresses. Tights or panty-hose became highly fashionable, in place of stockings, specifically because the rise in hemlines meant that stocking tops would be visible.

The miniskirt as a sarong	Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers

In the 1960s the mini was regarded as a symbol of liberation, and it was worn by some, such as Germaine Greer and, in the following decade, Gloria Steinem, who became known for their promotion of women's issues. Miniskirts never entirely went away however, for example, they were often worn by Deborah Harry, of the group Blondie, during the "new wave" of the late 70s. The song (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea (1978) by new wave artist, Elvis Costello, contained the line, "There's no place here for the mini-skirt waddle".

In the 1980s, short skirts began to re-emerge, notably in the form of "rah-rahs", which were modelled on those worn by female cheerleaders at sporting and other events. In the mid-80s the "puffball" skirt enjoyed short term popularity, being worn by, among others, the Princess of Wales. Many women began to incorporate the miniskirt into their business attire, a trend which grew during the remainder of the century. Films and television series made in the mid-1990s (Friends, Sex and the City, Ally McBeal, for example) show how ubiquitous the mini had become again. In the BBC TV series Keeping Up Appearances (1990-5) the snobbish Hyacinth Bucket was frequently outraged by the brevity of her sister Rose's miniskirts.

1960s Miniskirt photo galleries