Skirt and dress

A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment which is worn from the waist down around the legs and thighs. At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of material, but most skirts are tailored. At their longest they can reach down to the ground, and at their shortest they end high above the knees.

Some medieval upper-class women would wear skirts over 3 metres in diameter at the bottom. At the other extreme, a miniskirt is a minimal garment that may not even cover the groin fully.

A dress is like a skirt but with an upper part attached.

Skirts and dresses are commonly worn with slips to make the material of the skirt drape better; these are a replacement for earlier underskirts[?] which are now rarely worn.

In Europe and America these garments are worn by females of all ages, but most almost always wear trousers (for more on this, see that article). A skirt may be worn as part of a suit.

Cultural practices with regards to age and gender vary; in some places males commonly wear what are defacto skirts or dresses (although they are seldom considered as such). Examples of this include the kilt and the sarong[?].

See also:

• bustle[?]
• T-shirt
• pantsuit[?]