I wore a ridiculous hoop skirt for stylish social distancing
As I squeezed through the doors of the 6 train in a 50-inch-wide hoop skirt, straphangers scurried out of the way to make room.
“Sorry,” I muttered, while eyeing a line of three open seats. It was just enough space for me to haphazardly wedge my skirt’s enormous plastic rings. I shimmied into the spot while the lady next to me scowled and scooted over.
Pleased with my bubble of safety, I folded my latex-gloved hands on the lap of my hot-pink petticoat and settled in for the ride.
“It’s not everyday you see a hoop skirt on the train!” the subway conductor yelled at me from across the car. “It’s the perfect thing for social distancing.”
And that’s exactly why I wore it.
Fashion has a funny way of adapting to the times — and if recessions tend to bring longer hemlines, then “COVID couture” must be all about masks and clothes that say, “Get the hell away from me.”
It’s not the first time women’s fashion has commanded space in the name of steering clear of a pandemic.
“During the Spanish flu in 1918, one of the ways women protected their space was by wearing really big hats,” said fashion historian Dr. Alison Matthews David, citing wide-brimmed “picture hats” and the even larger “merry widow hats” of the 1910s, as well as decorative and practical “flu veils,” which acted as a shield from sickness — and unwanted advances. “There are all these caricatures of men not being able to approach women because of how massive their hats were.”
provided by nypost.com
