Today is

By: Ikedi Ani-okoye.

School skirts

Short school skirts are passé. Following the release of the hit music video featuring pop singer Britney Spears in a micro-mini school skirt, hemlines of school skirts crept up to what many consider to be improper levels.

This caused the Scottish Parent Teacher Council to clamp down heavily on retail stores selling miniscule school skirts and subsequently, the sale of school skirts decreased. In 2002, Woolworth's, which sells 10 per cent of the school wear in Scotland, sold 200,000 school skirts and just 4,000 pairs of girls' trousers. But this year, the store has sold 104,000 pairs of trousers and 100,000 skirts.

Denim skirts

Denim skirts continue to be popular this season. A perennial fabric, the durable nature of denim ensures that the skirt keeps its shape and fit despite being worn repeatedly. Brought into the limelight with the recent Bollywood film 'Salaam Namaste' where actress Preity Zinta flaunts her Von Dutch denim mini teamed with a red tank top, a denim skirt has and always will be a basic summer item while a longer, slim denim skirt is preferable in winter.

Leather skirts

As the weather gets colder, a leather skirt looks fantastic when paired with a sweater and boots. Leather definitely made the strongest statement at most couture showings this year, so if you have to purchase a single wardrobe item to jazz up your winter wardrobe, we would recommend a mid length to long tailored leather skirt.

Tennis skirt alternative

If you are not that keen on wearing the ubiquitous mini skirt that is being forecasted as a sure-fire fashion staple for Spring 2006, summon up your inner athlete and go with a short, pleated tennis-inspired skirt made of comfortable, wearable sweatshirt fabric instead. This fashion-forward key constituent of the preppy trend will make you look sporty chic when a casual look is in the cards.

CONCLUSION

What about skirts? The classic one are still tend to be worn only by women. The stereotype that man are only wearing trousers is so strong in our culture that we can't free from that. And are we forgetting about Asian culture where men are wearing kimonos and Scottish culture where every man has it's own kilt?