This blog post is about skirt fit. Unfortunately skirts aren’t on trend right now. At Macy’s I have a lot of customers ask me if we have them.
I personally love wearing them. In the spring/summer I wear them instead of shorts. In the fall winter I love wearing them with tights and boots. I get tired of wearing pants day in and day out and just want to wear skirts.
Skirt fit is very easy. There are only three areas that you look at:
- Waist
- Hip
- Hem
If you have a hard time finding clothes to fit your body and have been thinking about learning to sew or refresh your skills, a skirt is a great place to start. YouTube is an excellent resource for learning how to change a pattern to fit your body and sew it up.
One final item to note, before you start determining if the skirt fit is right for you: you need to understand your 5 Body Elements and the clues they give you. If you need a review or need to determine them go to:
The two most important Body Elements are Body Shape and Body Proportion.
Let’s get started.
Skirt Fit -- Waist
Skirt fit starts with the waist because the rest hangs from this point. There are three areas to look for fit:
- Circumference
- Parallel to the Ground
Circumference
The first step in determining skirt fit is waist circumference. For comfort most believe that an inch of wearing ease is needed at the waist because when you sit your waist circumference can increase. However for practicality purposes it might be hard because if you have zero waist or your waist is bigger than your hips, the waist will not stay at the waist. In this case there should not be any wearing ease. For those of you with this fit problem an elastic waist is great for you. At Macy’s the INC and Alfani brands have great skirts made with elastic waists.
Parallel To The Ground
As a general rule the waist should lay parallel to the ground. That being said: if your pelvic bone leans forward or backward, finding a parallel waistband isn’t possible for you.
If your pelvic bone leans forward, then the front waist is lower than the back waist. This causes the hem of the skirt to be longer in the front and shorter in the back. When your pelvic bone leans backward the front waist is higher than the back waist causing the front hem to be shorter in the front than the back.
An easy fix is to have your tailor/seamstress adjust the hem to make it parallel to the ground. This can be done if there is enough hem length.
Skirt Fit -- Hips
There are two areas that you need to look at for skirt fit at the hips:
- Waist to Hips Length
- Circumference
Waist To Hips Length
The skirt fit related to the length between the waist and hips is really only important for straight and pencil skirts. The difference between these skirts is that the straight skirt hem has the same width as at the hips, while the pencil skirt’s hem is smaller than the hips.
The problem arises if your body proportion between your waist and hips is longer or shorter than the fit model’s body proportion. Or if you have an “A,” “X” or “S” body shape.
If you are long in this area there will be a bulge between your waist and hips. This is an easy fix. Your tailor/seamstress can take in the side seams in this area. She might also need to adjust the back darts to fit the shape of your butt.
On the other hand, if you are short in this area you might need to go up a size and have your tailor/seamstresses adjust the waist and side seam to fit your body perfectly. This is an easy fix but a little more time consuming.
Depending on your height, you might want to consider petite skirts. The length between the waist and hips are shorter on petite skirts. This might not be a good option if you have long legs.
Circumference
Skirts need to have at least 2 inches of wearing ease unless the fabric is made out of a knit or the woven fabric has Lycra built in. Wearing ease is needed because when we seat our butt muscles spread.
That being said the only skirts you need to be concerned with for wearing ease are straight and pencil skirts.
Skirt Fit -- Hem
The hem of a skirt is a horizontal line. The question you need to ask yourself is, “Where do I want this horizontal line?” Your body proportions between your waist and crotch, crotch and knees, knees and floor, and crotch and floor will give you this clue.
Remember as a general rule, you want horizontal lines in long areas and not short areas. However with skirts you have more wiggle room because you can’t tell where your legs start, which is one of the advantages of wearing skirts.
Play with it. Find the spot that makes you feel the lightest. Once you know that spot/spots remember it/them and in the future you can make sure your skirts are that/those lengths.
Summary
Skirt fit is an easy process and in most cases can be an easy fix. This is one of the reasons I love wearing them.
If you find most skirts are too short for you consider looking at websites for tall women. If they end up being too long you can have them shorten in most cases.
Did you learn anything new about skirt fit? Are you now more interested in wearing them because they are so easy to have them altered? Tell us what you learned by writing it in the comments below.
The last post about clothes’ fit addresses pants. I had written about pant fit previously so it will be more of a summary. Next week’s blog post is called Pant Fit — How To Create Perfect Fit.
Wear Your Greatness!!
