43 thoughts on “SNARK WEEK: Stop It With the Skirt Hiking

  1. The girl in the GIF giggles when she moves. No corset. Treat like a puppy and say ‘bad girl` to both actress and costume designer,.

    Refresh Claudia Cardinale in the Piero Tosi dress, I put it down to nerves.

  2. There is an interesting on this very topic: “The Wearing of Costume: The Changing Techniques of Wearing Clothes and How to Move in Them, from Roman Britain to the Second World War” by Ruth M. Green. I learned how to wrangle a houppelande from this.

    There is a wonderful 15th century illustration of dancers in which a gentleman has his foot firmly on the train of the lady next to him. So, sometimes you need to grab some skirt. I remember doing an English County Dance in said houppelande and walking up the train when I took a step backward in the dance. Down I went. That being said, in real life, nobody would have been wearing a train doing that kind of dance. Think Elizabethan or Jacobean.

    I suppose people who make movies think you are supposed to hike something if you are wearing a long skirt. Sometimes I have to hike a skirt going UP stairs.

    1. I quite often dance in an 1880s bustle gown with a train, and the key is in how you cut and trim the train, and how discreetly you can kick it out of the way. :D

    2. I wear long, historical dresses A LOT. I’ve mastered walking in them, navigating long trains, wide hoops, bustles, panniers, you name it — but I have never been able to walk up a set of stairs without falling on my face.

      1. Oh! I thought I was the only one. 30 years in the SCA and stairs are still my nemesis.

  3. “How dare you crunch up the master designer Piero Tosi’s work in your petulant little fist…”
    That made my afternoon!

  4. I think it might be a modern-minded actress’s take on a fan, and if they don’t have a fan, they use the skirt as big giant one to imply girliness. If they feel elegant and stately, they might do it to draw attention to the bigliness of it all. Other than that, they haven’t rehearsed enough in costume to know they don’t have to do it to survive. shrug

  5. In Nicholas Nickleby, she is on a grassy hillside as I recall, so maybe a little leeway to keep the white dress clean. But is there any sin that North and South did not commit?

    1. Are leather skirt chasers or hikes that attach to belts historic for the Renaissance period ? Does anyone know ? I don’t recall seeing them in paintings…🤔 has anyone seen them in paintings? I like the idea of them but I think they are a re-inactorism . I think this skirt clenching is a nervous tick for actors who aren’t used to large skirts. I only skirt hike for my stairs so not trip going up and down cause don’t want to die . This is why propoer undergarments such as pettie coats hold your skirts out.

  6. I admit, I have hoiked a skirt up when wearing a victorian. Mostly because it is actually too long, but unless we want it unwearable for anyone else, we can’t hem it.

    (I have to occasionally dress as Queen Victoria for work. I’m short, plump and look rather like the portrait we have of her, so now thats the default dress up for me!)

    In my defence, it’snormally that I’m trying to scurry fast through the site to get somewhere, and it’s.to avoid tripping on the length (or when we were outside, dragging it through the mud).

    Otherwise, yes, I agree, there’s no excuse when it’s made to the right length!

  7. Regarding proper skirt length and shoes, I’ve seen much the same with peoples trousers today with good pants often getting ruined because they are too lazy/cheep to get them hemmed properly or their shoes are the wrong height? This meant the bottoms get all ragged and filthy or buggered up at the knees due to all the hoicking to avoid tripping over or spreading dirt everywhere.

    It’s not just a costume thing either regarding skirts – I’ve seen far too many starlets abusing good dresses in much the same way described in the article on the red carpet in this day and age.

    (this was really problematic back before skinny jeans came into fashion – anyone else remember the bell bottom revival or, gulp, skater jeans for girls? I do and am not too proud to admit to partaking in the trend as well)

      1. It’s not a lost art in my family. I also suspect that this is the reason why rolling hems up and cropping came back in as well. People just got sick of wet and dirty pants. :)

        1. I think it’s definitely a lost art. Also, I think the information out there is a bit confusing or lacking. I tried to find out where I should hem my professional pants to or a guide for the sleeves on my suit jackets, but a lot of the info is for men. And even that is a bit confusing… I do not know how the whole crease-on-the-shoe thing works. I hope to figure it all out eventually.

  8. Ever since y’all pointed out Olivia de Havilland’s skirt hiking in My Cousin Rachel, I can’t unsee it; my goddess is tarnished! In Ridicule, though, isn’t there a plot reason she’s gripping her skirts? I seem to remember her brushing her hem against flowers to covertly collect pollen. (Doesn’t justify those bangs, though.)

  9. I wear my skirts long and the only time I ever have to grab them is going up and down steps/stairs. Going in either direction I sweep them to one side, not up. This is essential when going down stairs if one is to avoid catching ones heel in the hem and making a very ungraceful descent. I speak from bitter experience.

    I remember someone recalling, when Dior’s New Look was in vogue, that he was transported back to his childhood when he walked up some steps behind a woman who gathered her skirts to the side; he recalled seeing his mother doing exactly the same thing at the start of the century but had not seen the gesture for many, many years.

  10. I am so impressed you managed to notice the skirt hiking on those monstrosities of costumes in Knightfall. Also, note to self: hiked shirts look ridiculous.

  11. Maybe it’s a hand thing – What do I do with my hands while I’m walking that will give my hands something to do instead of just flapping around on the ends of my arms. Or maybe it’s about the Drama, because nothing says drama more that hiking your skirts up!

  12. I might be mistaken but doesn’t Game of Thrones (of all shows!) get this mostly right? I know more than one of my friends have commented on the seemingly recurring image of Sansa Stark dragging her skirts nonchalantly through Winterfell grounds (which may be a case of “Reality is Unrealistic”, since people seem to expect ladies in historical costumes to hoist their skirts up).

  13. I wonder if it’s a mix of a)instinct to grab it because there’s a lot of fabric there and b)just….not being sure what to do with their hands?

    1. I’m wondering the same. Women aren’t really accustomed to wearing long, voluminous skirts; they can’t easily see their feet/the hem so to play it safe just grab some skirt to make sure they don’t step on it not understanding it’s not needed. And yeah, it also gives you something to do with your hands when you don’t know how historical people moved and posed themselves.

      1. Yeah I was also wondering if it has something to do with not being able to see your feet. I do it instinctively when I’m wearing floor-length dresses. We’re so used to being able to look down and see where we’re stepping in the modern era. But seriously, the wardrobe director on all these shoots should be reminding actors not to do this. It goes with the territory and if I were an actor I’d definitely want to be able to accurately portray the character.

        1. This reminds me of a quote from Patrick Stewart — he was the only one on the Star Trek set who knew how to wear the uniform, since they didn’t have pockets, and no one knew what to do with their hands. His work as a Shakespearean actor meant he knew — you do nothing!

  14. Skirt hiking isn’t even necessary when going up stairs. The waitresses in the theme park where I worked as a teen could manage to carry trays up the stairs by kicking out the skirt mind that took practice but was more effecting than hiking it as that only makes way for more fabric to come swirling down. The trick when walking is small steps not great strides. the actors clearly aren’t being taught how to walk properly.

  15. I do think it is an acting affectation, They do not know what to do with their hands or they make an acting choice to show some sort of emotion. Mostly, it is because they have not been trained to wear the costume. I was in an opera, Madame Butterfly, and we were trained by the director how to walk, stand, move, hold our hands, kneel, everything, like a geisha. I still use the training, to this day.

  16. I would make an exception in terms of waltzing with one wrist in a dance loop attached to one side of the skirt. But that’s not literally skirt-hiking.

  17. I read a comment from Edith Head saying that Grace Kelly was the only actress with whom she’d worked who asked how a particular costume would affect her: Should she move differently in it; how would someone walk in this dress; how would she go up and down stairs? Kelly also practiced descending stairs in costume so she wouldn’t have to look at the steps but could sail regally down them, head high.

  18. Disney Princesses do this A LOT, and I think it might have been ingrained in the younger generation that it’s a very ladylike and girly thing to do. It also makes a woman look like she’s getting down to business when she lifts her skirts to move more quickly/get things done.
    I know the working classes, at least in the early modern era, had shorter dresses, but I wonder if the same rules applied to them.

  19. Weighing in because I’ve worn a lot of long skirts my whole life just because I wanted to.

    Most of my life, I’ve lived in areas where any kind of nature walk or going hiking meant either getting one’s ankles bitten to death or covering one’s ankles in DEET, except, guess what? Long full skirts are the answer. Large amounts of fabric constantly in a swirl about your ankles mean no bugs, no bug bites, no nasty chemicals. Our ancestresses knew what they were doing.

    Now of course what one wears informs how one moves — good luck walking like a typical American while wearing a kimono. So as great a heaven-sent blessing as a long full skirt (to just barely above the ground) is when hiking in so many environments, I don’t recommend anyone try it unless they wear such skirts a lot in their usual environments first, lest they trip all over the forest.

    And no, I don’t spend much of the hike holding my skirts in any way. That would rather defeat the point. I don’t need to see my feet to see where I’m going to put them. The pull to the side shown in the period photograph is the way to go for stairs and certain levels of incline, because it is the way to manage the fabric without exposing an inch more ankle than necessary (recall the skirts are the defense against nasty things like Lyme disease and the Zika virus — you don’t want to be pulling them away from your ankles a second more than you have to). For anything really steep or for a good rock scramble, the lost art of kilting up one’s skirts temporarily is the way to go, followed by dropping them again once past the impediment.

    I hike with thin socks and what are basically thin slippers with a Mary Jane strap on my feet, because maximum foot an ankle motion is how I avoid sore feet and blisters the next day. The long swirling skirts keep the insects away from my feet as well. Plus all that moving fabric circulates air on a hot day, helping perspiration dry.

    None of this is remotely difficult once it has become habit. After all, pregnant women walk without being able to see their feet all the time.

  20. Deborah Kerr does a HUGE amount of skirt hiking in “The King and I.”

  21. I hike my skirt or dress bottom up when going up or down steps or on uneven ground if I’ve already slipped or tripped on it. I should hike up more often on uneven ground to prevent that. For instance unevenly cobbled streets. That’s so A) I don’t trip and B) I don’t ruin the hem with dirt or rips. But, I also wear dresses made of satin, silks, velvet and chiffon which drape much differently than the cheap cotton in the photos. Typically I give more care to my higher value clothing. Also, mermaid and trumpet dresses will make you have to walk differently than a long swirling skirt. I only hike up trip hazards. And, I guess I value much more the item of clothing I am wearing than the off chance of upsetting or peeving someone I care absolutely nothing about. I won’t stop lifting my hems a few inches away from my feet just because there might be a bimbo criticizing how far up I might pull up a skirt for a few seconds as I traverse a staircase. May karma please make her trip and fall on her face in a crowded room to teach her the error of her ways.

    1. And if you read the article, you’d have seen this:
      Skirt-hiking is only really needed if the wearer is actually running, going up stairs, or walking on uneven ground, or if the wearer is a little bit infirm or insecure, such as an elderly lady.
      So we’re not mocking skirt-hiking when it’s needed — but when it’s pointless.

  22. This post and the whole conversation makes me so very, very happy. The only thing that irritates me more than seeing a character (or a bride, or a pageant contestant) hike her full skirt to walk across a floor is seeing someone hike her long, straight skirt to do it. Assuming the skirt is not so narrow that one can use the whole leg to walk (in a lady-like way, natch), there is even less reason – less fabric – to hike the skirt.

  23. This is pretty ridiculous; I don’t know why actresses do it. Long skirts from most periods are cut so that you won’t trip over the hem. People weren’t stupid back then, and they had to live and work in their clothes. Though I will say, I make costumes for the Natural Form Era(c. 1877-82), and I have seen quite a few paintings of women from that era with their skirts hitched up. Not just pulled to the side(like in the period photo in the post), actually held up. Usually this is in paintings of people walking down the street. As an example:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Béraud#/media/File%3AParis_Kiosk_Beraud.jpg

    An unusual aspect of fashions of this era that I think is the cause is that long trains were common even for daywear. The women in the painting I linked would have their skirts dragging on the street if they didn’t hold them up. They did use balayeuses(a kind of removable, washable lining for the train) to protect the skirt, but considering how filthy streets are, hitching the train up is probably going to cause less wear and tear on the whole than letting it drag in the street. Also, the cut of these skirts allows them to be held up in a manner that looks graceful, unlike the skirt hiking going on in the frock flicks.

    Overall I think this period is a minor exception to the rule. I don’t know how you could hitch up an 1860s crinoline skirt without it looking bad. And again, you wouldn’t need to. Generally, the only gowns in the 1860s that touched the floor were court gowns. And at court(or anywhere indoors), a trained petticoat will serve.

  24. In the scene in Ridikule the girl was catching pollen with the hem of her dress, so her lover could bred the flowers at home

  25. To my knowledge, even, on the rare occasions, when women would lift their skirts, or pull them to the side, they would NEVER lift their underskirts, like so many of these women are doing. Underskirts were always slightly shorter than overskirts, and so didn’t require skirt hiking, even in the most extreme of situations. Of course, it depends on the time period, but underskirts were often decorated, and made of rich fabrics. They were designed to be shown in situations like this where the skirt would need to be lifted, but the woman’s “modesty” protected (and by modesty, I refer to the bottom of the woman’s ankles, lol. Oh, how times have changed!). You see this often in medieval manuscripts and paintings, where women would hold up the overskirt to reveal a shorter underdress/skirt beneath (of course, they would also hold their skirts over their stomachs to simulate fertility and pregnancy – a la the Arnolfini portrait – but that’s a whole other conversation!). Obviously, the names of these underskirts and dresses changed over the eras, but I use the term to describe a certain type of garment that served the same basic function, regardless of time period – to provide both evidence of wealth and style, and further manoeuvrability and modesty in situations where the outer dress needed to be pulled to the side.

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