The Magic Morphing Hippie Skirt

I saw this skirt in the Jayli catalog, over two years ago when I went on a hippie clothing kick. I received it as a Christmas present and proceeded to never wear it for my blog, because it never looked as good as I had imagined. The first problem was the "attached shawl." It just didn't work. If I wore a shirt over it, it basically disappeared, but the skirt was too low-riding to wear with anything tucked in. 

So, within a few weeks of owning the piece, I removed the shawl. Fortunately it wasn't integrated into the construction of the skirt but added on at the end, so it was easy to pick away the stitching and take it off. Then I was able to wear the shawl higher or lower, or not wear it at all, which slightly increased the skirt's versatility. The shawl also makes a decent headscarf.

But meanwhile, the skirt still didn't quite fit. I had wanted a maxi skirt but instead got a skirt that only reached to my ankles, and it draped awkwardly around my hips. I wore it like this a couple of times, but I never felt proud of my appearance when I did. 

Finally, a year and a half later, I realized that maxi skirts are overrated (I always run them over with my office chair), and I would be doing myself a favor by actually making the skirt shorter. Luckily there was a quick and simple fix—I just took in the waist by a couple inches. This caused the skirt to ride on my natural waist instead of my hips, which made the flare a little more pronounced. Turns out I inadvertently learned a new   If you want your skirt to flare a little more, try wearing it higher on your waist.

My alteration also raised the bottom hem to midi-length, which I found much more flattering and also more practical (office chair, you lose this battle!). Now I can wear the skirt like this or I can employ the good old skirt-rolling technique to lift the hem even higher.

While I've worn it in my blog before, this is the first time you can actually see it at its new length! It's paired with the long wine-colored sleeveless top I got last fall. The shawl is being used to good effect here, as a belt to define my waist, which would otherwise get lost in such oversized clothing, and to break up the length of the shirt, which would otherwise produce the dreaded dwarfing effect that occurs when wearing a top and bottom of the same length.

The other nice thing about shortening this skirt is that it – in keeping with my personal philosophy of "the longer the skirt, the shorter the shoe" – has made it possible for me to wear it with my beloved high heels.