I only wear long skirts. I own short skirts, in fact I own quite a few very nice ones, but I only wear long ones. They don't have to be maxi, but they do have to be below the knee - my favourite length is a calf-skimming one. 'Ballerina skirts', circle skirts, structured or flowy, as long as they hit mid-shin I'll pull them on and pull them off. Which is why many people seem a little aghast that I like Alexa Chung so much. She of the 'anything shorter than mid-thigh is a skirt wasted' ethos. I have to say, her skirts were always much too short for me, and I came to the realisation that she was more of a girl-crush than a style icon. The truth of the matter is, there aren't many who will take on the Ballerina length in skirts. It's actually trickier than a maxi skirt, which you can easily beach-ify up or glamourise down. The Calf-length skirt is an ageing length and you have to ensure that you pair it with interesting separates and eye-catching jewelry to ensure that you stay forever young.
Poor Alexa has been getting a lot of flack on tFS about this outfit. Age-innapropriate, grandma, boring, trying to hard... I think the general consensus is that she should have worn a shorter skirt. But I'm ecstatic! How many times have we seen her wear a short skirt? How many times have we seen her bare her legs - all year round, in rain hail or shine? If you wear something over and over again it becomes uniform and, I can testify, a little boring. Even though I loooove my long skirts, everyday that I pull one on I dream of slipping into something with a foot less of fabric, or even, dare I say, pants. The more you wear something the more you want to wear something else, and I reckon Alexa's feeling pretty similar.
The best thing about fashion is that you can try different things. You don't HAVE To wear anything, you can test the waters and get comfortable. I don't HAVE to wear long skirts, but I like wearing them. Alexa might not wear a long skirt again (and I hope she doesn't read tFS in which case she just might not) but I hope she does, because it is an effortless and graceful style that, paired with her london cool and wicked sense of humour, becomes more than just the grandma's perennial favourite. As with any piece of clothing it is all about who wears it and how. Nothing is ever definitive until it is put on. And that's why a Ballerina length skirt can be as stately on Elle Macpherson as it can be Painfully Chic on Alexa Chung. And, hopefully, just a little bit Cool on Me.
and pixie joins in the fun too, lovely! the more the merrier.
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