If you haven’t heard (or seen) the micro mini skirt is back with a vengeance. Like many of its Y2K counterparts, the teeny tiny mini is currently undergoing a huge fashion revival with its ultra skimpy silhouette being the go-to skirt of choice for all the fashion forwards out there.
The micro mini first came into our periphery in the 1960s with designer, Mary Quant, credited with having helped to invent the design. But it wasn’t until the late 90s and early 00s that the trend picked up steam, becoming the garment of the moment within pop culture. Beloved by A-listers such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, the mini skirt was sported in a range of different iterations including distressed denim, low slung waistlines and ruffled hems.
The party-ready piece is now bursting onto the runways of Miu Miu and Blumarine, with the designers of the moment reimagining the skirt with embellished sequins, schoolgirl pleats and butterfly motifs galore. Just like back in the day, it’s the fashion It-Girls who are taking the trend and running with it, stars like Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa can often be found frolicking about in their shortest short skirts, of course in line with the rest of their vintage-inspired uniform! Generation Z has followed suit, taking note from high fashion labels and experimenting with the trend via social media platforms like Tiktok and Instagram.
As its popularity soars, is it comfort over style for this controversial trend? When it comes to the micro-mini we think otherwise, as its impracticality becomes ever more apparent. Appearing not much lengthier than your average wide waist belt, exposed midriffs and barely-there bottoms are just some of the risqué attributes the micro-mini presents … one gust of wind and all will be revealed, but do you really care? While the above may be true, we, for one, are not too fussed and quite frankly, nothing is going to stop us from jumping on the bandwagon of this style revival.
There is one major difference, though, from the micro-mini we saw two decades ago compared to the one we face as of late. Noughties fashion was notoriously exclusive and represented a real lack of diversity among those who wore it. The sexual connotations that the revealing style triggered only helped to exaggerate this problem. However, these days the power has been given back to the people and we are taking fashion and its meanings into our own hands. A style that once was created purely for the pleasing of a man, has now been recreated with a completely new agenda. The micro mini symbolises female empowerment, celebrating your body and dressing for yourself and that is exactly what we want to see in 2022. Girl power unlocked!
Love it or hate it there is no doubt that the micro mini is back and it’s better than ever. Just in case you needed some more inspiration to get on board with this trend, here are some of our favourite iterations of this style!
Words By Ella Citron-Thompkins
Photo Credit: Dua Lipa Instagram
