Nowadays, if you open a woman's closet, you'll almost certainly find a mini skirt, but that wasn’t always the case.
During the jazz era in the 1920s, flappers wore shorter skirts and dresses that ended at the knee. In the 1930s and 1940s, in sports and film contexts, some sportswomen and actresses began to also wear shorter skirts, but only in certain events.
Responsible for welcoming and popularizing the mini skirt, Mary Quant was the mother of this piece, when in the 1950s, the British designer opened her store, Bazaar, in London. She was inspired by the fact that young women wanted more feminine pieces, and asked Quant to raise the hem of their skirts, thus giving rise to the mini skirt, which was socially seen as an act of rebellion. From then on, many designers began to bring the idea from the streets to the catwalks, such as André Courrèges and Christian Dior, and many celebrities of the time, such as Twiggy, Brigitte Bardot and Jackie Kennedy, helped to make it popular and trendy.
During the Second World War (1939-1945), many women were inserted into the workforce, since most men were at war, and someone had to replace them in their jobs. This period was important for women's self-discovery as independent and capable beings, although at the end of the war, they tried to return to conventional normality and send women back home.
Feminist movements were influenced by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., who inspired minority groups to fight for their rights. Artists such as Betty Friedan and Aretha Franklin carried with them their feminist anthems and the creation of the National Organization for Women in 1966, which demanded equality in the workplace and in society in general.
In the 1960s, fashion was marked by a diversity of colors, shapes and the principle of taking risks, reflecting the personality of each individual according to their wishes. The mini skirt became a symbol of women's autonomy over their own bodies, as well as the popularization of the pill as a contraceptive and the desire for women to enter education and the job market.
Although this was only the beginning, it allowed the foundations to be laid so that future generations of women would never stop fighting until they achieved what was fair.