“Every single day, I walk down the street, I hear people say “Baby, so sweet”. Ever since puberty, everybody stares at me- boys, girls. I can’t help it, baby.”

That’s Maureen. From RENT. She really can’t help it; the character is a tall, skinny brunette with supermodel good looks and a kick-ass attitude.

But what happens when you’re walking down the street and people are staring for all the wrong reasons?

Yes.

This is The Skirt Blog.

I go out on the weekend. This is a fairly usual occurrence. I find I enjoy it a lot and it’s a useful distraction from the monotony of deciding whether the laundry or the dishes is the winner in Domestic Idol this week.

One thing I’m noticing in these lovely summer(ish) months is the amount of young girls (high school age) in next to nothing, in broad daylight where other people can see them. In particular, wearing very very short pants and skirts, with very very little tops.

Now, I’m not judging.

Okay, maybe I’m slightly judging because without slight judging there would be no blog, but what I’m really interested in here is establishing the status quo- what exactly is the accepted social norm here?

In fact, I don’t really have an article so much as a bunch of questions based on actual sightings over several summer weekends... 

Do leggings count as pants?

When is a skirt not a skirt, but a belt?

Are hot pants appropriate day wear when teamed with a boob tube?

Is a corset actually lingerie disguised as a summer top?

Can you pair a short skirt and a low cut top with heels in the middle of the day? Should you?

What is the point where fishnet stockings stop being edgy and fashionable and start channelling Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman?

Should stockings have ginormous holes in them as a “look?” Is this a good “look”?

What age should you stop caring? 18? 16? 12? Never?

Who should care- the girls themselves? Their boyfriends? Should they even worry if their boyfriends or other guys think they are underdressed? (Or overdressed, as the case may be.)

Should parents have a say in what their kids and teens are wearing? Who can see that realistically occurring with no drama? (Again, no judging; I still have trouble believing the universe does not in actual fact revolve around me.)

What about school skirts? I see a lot of uniforms where I work and let me categorically state that either the just-above-the-knee rule was abolished or there is serious confusion amongst our nation’s teenagers just where exactly one’s knees start.

Last year there was an article on the Daily Mail site about a student being told by a teacher that she “looked like a slut”, after the student refused to roll down her waistband to make her skirt longer. The teacher wrote a letter of apology to the student’s mother and that appears to be that. Most of the comments on the article side with the teacher.

Am I just old (god forbid)? Do these girls look really, really under dressed to me because I’m older? Is it just a reaction to a look I can’t pull off? Or a result of a (sort of) conservative upbringing? Should I just concentrate on my own clothing and mind my business?

Or is it just bad judgement? Whose bad judgement?

 Is it a learn-by-trial-and-error scenario?

Are we so P.C. that we don’t tell our kids or teens that looking like Paris Hilton is not always the wisest choice one could make? Or are we not educating them on how to actually wear the clothes? Is there a right or wrong way to wear a short shirt or short shorts?

I’ll tell you what I think (let’s face it; it was always going to happen). I think you choose which half you want to expose and pair a short shirt with a longer top or a skimpy top with longer pants or a skirt.

 WikiHow backs me up on this and also adds “watch the length and the taste. You can come off as skanky if you wear one that is too short for your body.”

eHow has age guidelines:

“Teens: Can get away with denim, unstructured miniskirt, but please watch the shortness of the skirt.
20's: You are old enough to take the mini to the extreme look for skirts with style and flair; don't just stick with the denim because you can.
30's: Look for a skirt with structure, such as an A-line mini or one of the new high waisted styles.
40's: Drop the length of the skirt to below mid-thigh.
 50's: Go for skirts that are a bit more conservative and career like. The skirt should probably only be a few inches above the knee.”

I think the trend also seems to be to copy our peers and not necessarily experiment with what works for us and our body type. For example, I personally rock the boot leg jean look, but if you put me in,say, pierrot pants I need to wear sky-high stilettos to make it look like I have anywhere near the required amount of leg to pull it off.

The site College Fashion recommends you should “know your body type- the mini skirt’s greatest strength and weakness is that it shows off your legs. If you have great legs, why not flaunt them? If that’s one body part you’d rather not bare all the way, wear a skirt or mini dress with tights or decide not to wear them at all. It’s better to feel confident in your clothes than wear something you know doesn’t flatter you.”

So where is the line? When is less more and less, well, less?

Do we all secretly aspire to the “Maureen” vibe- where everybody stares and we secretly adore it? Do we just want to feel good about ourselves?

Or do we all have/need/want the kick-ass attitude?

Does it come down to personal choice or is it a balance between your own individuality and following societal behaviours? And if so, which society?

Obviously the entire fate of civilization as we know it does not rest on the outcome of this blog, but I think it’s important to try to define or at least question why we wear what we wear, and therefore what is behind the decisions we make. How far are we prepared to go either to express our own individuality or to follow the trends?

I don’t have the solutions (do there even need to be solutions?). I’m just putting it out there to the universe based on recent non scientific observations that some very young girls seem to be wearing clothing that, to put it as nicely as possible, leaves almost nothing to the imagination.

So how short is too short?