At the tail end of 2023, British Vogue’s shopping editor dampened her forefinger and raised it forthright into the air.
She felt the winds change direction: from the libidinous miniskirts that had been permeating Miu Miu’s catwalks toward a more bookish silhouette that had, in a stunning turn of events, also been permeating Miu Miu’s catwalks. Bracing at just the right point of the kneecap, she christened this style “the awkward skirt length” and cast Andy Sachs as its poster girl.
The runes of the not-quite-midi, not-quite-maxi skirt could be read across the recent collections. Yes, at Miu Miu, but also 16Arlington, Gucci, and Saint Laurent, where models scuttled down the catwalks in a host of “I might read books, but I am also quite beautiful and once I remove my Bayonetta spectacles you will be pleasantly surprised!” silhouettes.
Emily Ratajkowski—a woman whose personal brand slipstreams between intelligence and sexual provocation—began to take note.
