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| Midway on the runway AW2013 as seen at (left to right): Victoria Beckham, Celine and Haider Ackermann. |
It’s time to raid your closet and ask yourself this compelling question. The current hemline for skirts, the one to be wearing right now, is the midi. It started last year, when houses like Miu Miu went full on midi for SS2013. At the AW2013 collections (shown in February/March), it was the only length the frowers were wearing. This season it has really arrived. No longer dowdy, today’s midi skirt is sleek, feminine and surprisingly sexy. Credit the likes of Mrs Beckham, Sienna M and Carine Roitfeld for giving midis their sultry seals of approval and thereby propelling them to superstar status.
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| Playing the Hitchcock heroine: Victoria Beckham in he own design, Sienna Miller at LFW last September and Carine Roitfeld in Balenciaga in Paris. |
The best ones hit mid to lower calf, and either hug the body all the way there, or offer a slight surprise of a flare towards the end. Color choices abound from the season’s dusty roses, to midnight blues or the fail safe stormy black. On a practical note, a midi skirt takes you from daytime to evening seamlessly. The only paramount “don’t” is “Don’t skip a heel”. Midis demand heel height of some sort, and miss the mark when they duet with flats. On cooler days, mimic the catwalks and pair your midi with a pony texture, single sole bootie and piece of over sized outerwear, like a cocoon jacket. It’s a look that’s suggests both a ladylike sensibility with a good dose of steam; think Hitchcockian icy chic like Tippi Hedron only minus all those bothersome birds.
Roadtest
I did a day to night look by combining a black lycra Haider Ackermann midi with a vintage YSL peasant blouse and a pair of suede Haider Ackermann sandals. The peek-a-boo slit in the back of this skirt keeps it slinky without being overdone.
