50’s Nostalgia: Fashion Statement – The Poodle Skirt

The clothing you grew up with never seems strange. It is just the way things were. You didn’t give it a second thought then or now. It’s only after many years pass that those pictures in your high school yearbook start to look a bit strange. You children make comments and you reconsider. Is that how we looked back then? Did we really dress like that? It does look a bit strange, doesn’t it. One example that comes to mind is the poodle shirt. Yes, I did say poodle skirt.

Every teen aged girl needed a poodle skirt in the 50’s. If you were in high school in the 50’s you know what they are- full skirts in solid colors with an applique of a poodle. You might see them at school but you would certainly see them at informal dances like the sock hops after football games. Being full circles of fabric, the skirts would swing easily while dancing, often with the supportive assistance of layers of crinoline petticoats . I remember them as made of felt which because of its substance kept the skirts from falling limply even without the crinoline. Imagine girls today wearing anything like a poodle skirt. No way dude!

It amazes me driving by the local high school and seeing what the well dressed student wears these days. I wonder if the girls even own a skirt. In the 50’s pants were forbidden to school girls let alone shorts. In the 50’s girls wore skirts and blouses- sometimes sweaters and even (gasp) dresses. Saddle shoes and bobby sox were common with most any school outfit. It is quite the contrast with what I see on the street today: ratty t-shirts and sweats over torn jeans and shorts. Today in my upscale community students wear clothes we would have been ashamed to wear slopping the hogs back in the 50’s. Today’s students wouldn’t be caught dead in a skirt, especially a poodle skirt.