FashBlog.com

There is something about broomstick skirts. I don't even like skirts, and I hadn't worn them since I was a child, until last year when I bought a broomstick skirt.

I think they became popular sometime in the 80's and lasted through the 90's, but I'm not sure. I remember my mother buying one for my older sister when I was a kid. My mom loved it just because she didn't have to iron it. I remember I thought it was pretty weird to have a skirt that looked like a rag, because that's what it looked like to me, but my sister also seemed to love it. But I never had one. I wasn't interested in skirts. Especially not that kind. It just wasn't my style.

And as I saw them begin to reappear on the shelves while I was in college, I thought, these skirts look okay, but they all had these strange layers of ruffles, varying colors, and I thought it was very strange that they seemed to be coming back into fashion in a time when I felt that clothes were starting to look pretty sophisticated again. And although I didn't hate them, and I didn't think that people who did wear them were weird, the one thing I knew was that I would never be able to be in one without feeling completely self-conscious.

Well, something possessed me last year to buy one. I have no idea what could have prompted that. I was in a drugstore, I think, a drugstore where they occasionally have very silly articles of clothing that aren't very expensive. And I saw one and I thought it was interesting, and as usual I felt like impulse buying because I was shopping alone, and I convinced myself as usual when shopping alone that someday I would wear it even though all previous evidence indicated otherwise. But when I went home, that skirt was with me, and the first time i tried it on, I thought to myself, this is something I didn't expect. I think I like this!

Naturally, that skirt was of a very poor quality, being bought at a drugstore and all, but I wore it. I wore it for days on end -- but only at home. It was cozy, soft, cool. I remembered a girl I used to know from India who always wore skirts. I just thought she was one of those people who likes to be dressed up all the time, but I remember the day I first realized that she had some skirts purely for the purpose of wearing at home. That's an amazing idea, I told her, it must be so comfortable (and inwardly i was thinking, and nobody would see me in it! I wouldn't have to feel weird!). That first, poor quality skirt of mine is falling apart now, more from poor quality than from use, though I did use it quite a lot. But the important thing is that that skirt was a gateway to more. I didn't have an intense fear of the idea of wearing a skirt like I used to. Wearing skirts alone in my house was something that made me more confident about skirts in general. So confident that I actually bought one -- one with ruffles, and graded multi-colors -- in a clothing store, in front of other people shopping for clothes! This one was a grand increase in quality from the last one. The first one you could see through as if it were gauze (it practically was!) -- good thing I only wore it at home I guess. The second one came not only with a better material, but also with an under-skirt of a gauzy material that prevented the absolute show-through problem that I had with the previous skirt.

I started wearing it all the time at home, and occasionally, when I went out shopping alone on weekends. Mmm a broomstick skirt with no care required, just wash and scrunch! I had heard they got their name because you are supposed to wrap them around a broomstick after washing in order to keep the crinkled look -- the tag on mine said just to twist it up and tie it in a knot, which I still faithfully do. Soon enough, I was wearing that very skirt to go out shopping with friends! In public! Even with the boy I liked! I don't know what got into me.

Well, that skirt is still in my day-to-day wear, and I recently bought another, very similar one on a clearance rack at Sears. It's so cozy, and it's so easy to take care of! I don't feel ridiculous anymore when I wear the skirts in public (which I know was a ridiculous feeling to start with, right?), but I still can't bring myself to wear them to school or work (I **know** nobody cares, but **I** care!).

So my lesson is this...if you want something as comfy as it gets, and you are scared of skirts and need a boost into world of not pants, try the broomsticks. There are a wide variety, frilly to not frilly, silly to not silly, (I think) sophisticated to absolutely casual. They are suitable for casually going out with friends, for shopping, for laying around the house, for going to school (even though I don't) -- absolutely versatile! I don't know why I didn't get interested in them earlier.