Do Short Skirts Really Mean Better Times?

Jan. 17 -- The old maxim was when women's hemlines rose, so did the economy.

So now that miniskirts are hot new items for spring, are the economy and stock market set to skyrocket as well?

Not likely, say experts.

"Fashion used to be much more of an indicator of economic trends," says Marshal Cohen, president of NPDFashionworld, a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y.

Cohen says over the past few years, the casual look that's become so popular in U.S. workplaces has diminished fashion's importance in indicating trends.

A Theory With Legs?

The so-called "hemline theory" is said to have gotten its start in the 1920s when Wharton School of Business economist George Taylor noticed in good economic times many women raised their skirts to show off their silk stockings. When times were bad, women lowered their skirts to hide that they weren't wearing any.

Supporting the premise was that the cost and availability of fabrics have historically affected the hemline of skirts, say economists. In boom times, when producers typically charge more for their yarn or textiles, designers would make skirts shorter to cut costs.

"Often designers felt that they could maybe save 20 percent of their material costs by creating new styles," says Edward B. Shils, the George W. Taylor Professor Emeritus of Entrepreneurial Management at the Wharton School.

But some fashion historians don't think the hemline-economy link ever held up that well.

"It's a kind of functionalist theory of fashion that doesn't work," says Valerie Steele, acting director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. "Hemlines were starting to come down in '27 and that was two years before the market crash."

Something for Every Taste

Even if the hemline theory held true at one point, fashion watchers say it has long gone the way of silk stockings.

That's because these days, there are so many different types of clothing that one particular trend in fashion doesn't necessarily point to a direction for the economy.