Fashion Skirts: You'll Own the Room Wearing New Longer Lengths

Fashion skirts favor a return to the maxi length for 2011. Pencil skirts and slit skirts also are strong.

You will find plenty of mini skirts, consistent with the current trend for Sixties styles – but I don’t recommend these as age-appropriate for over-50 women.

Skirts are such basic apparel and wardrobe necessities, that most familiar designs do not go out of style.

Skirts Are Versatile Wardrobe Investment

Every closet should have several fashions skirts in neutral colors that fit your lifestyle needs.

A skirt, like good-fitting pants, is a wardrobe necessity. Some of you can still look great in a pencil slim skirt. A slit skirt, whether long or short, is perenially sexy.

A figure-flattering skirt can be eminently versatile.

Long Pleated Skirt Is Popular

The long pleated skirt is up-and-coming once again -- but is it right for you?

The long pleated skirt has some drawbacks if you are short or pear-shaped. Look for a thin fabric that will not create bulk at the widest part of your hips. This body type should avoid pleats for shorter skirts.

A flat panel that extends to the hips and hold the pleats is another solution. This also enables tunic tops, long sweaters, and jackets to drape in more flattering lines over the top of the long pleated skirt, without add bulk.

Black and White Are Terrific Wardrobe Basics

Long black skirts are a fabulous investment, so please buy the best you can afford when you find one that fits. A slit skirt is especially sexy in black.

A long linen skirt in white or natural can be sophisticated and professional when worn with a jacket.

This linen fashion skirt in a bias-cut A-line or slim line may be appropriate for business wear in some professions, such as real estate agent, party planner, or other people- and trend-oriented careers. You usually do not want a slit skirt for business wear.

Long Skirts Are Perfect for Patios, Resort and Cruise Wear

Long summer skirts have never gone out of style, so the current trend toward ankle-length maxi-skirts builds on this perennial preference. Most of these are not appropriate for business and professional wear.

This is especially true if the fabric is gauzy or see-through.

Many long fashion skirts also do well for a Bohemian ensemble and are sometimes known as peasant skirts. Every Hecate and many a Kali will have several different colors in her closet.

Plaid Can Be Difficult to Wear

These new lighter tweeds have expanded the seasonal uses of this fabric finish. Once strictly for fall and winter seasons, a tweed jacket in a blended fiber may be appropriate for spring and summer, especially in a brighter color.

Plaid skirts are tricky. Pleated plaid can especially make the hips look very wide, indeed, unless you are rail-thin.

Plaid creates horizontal lines, and lines that cut across the hips are undesirable except for the thinnest ectomorphs.

If you love plaid, here are three ways to avoid the curse of a strong horizontal across your hips:

This kind of jacket may be single-breasted or double-breasted. A single-breasted jacket has one row of buttons that secures one edge of the jacket over the other.

A bias cut draws the eye diagonally and down. T

Soft colors that fade into each other, rather than bold contrasts, will minimize the horizontal effect.

A smaller plaid print that fools the eye into seeing small checks rather than long lines minimizes horizontal lines.

Two figure flattering styles for mature women are A line skirts and gored skirts. Many women also like the luxury of a silk wrap skirt.

Leather, Silk Chiffon, and Suede Are Luxury Textures

Other textures that women want are the long leather skirt, the silk chiffon skirt, the long khaki skirt, and suede skirts.

In summary, fashion skirts have amazing style longevity. A figure flattering skirt is a good investment in a neutral color. This is a wardrobe acquisition that warrants spending as much money as you can afford, especially if the skirt is one you really like.