Can/Should the Pencil Skirt be Saved??

The evolution of a work wardrobe power player and how it's current iteration can solve our 'business formal' problems...and beyond

The pencil skirt is to womenswear as the suit is to mens. An idea that conjures a 9-to-5 (in the Melanie Griffith/Working Girl sense of the term) visual of an entirely different era. Mentally, a pencil skirt is unforgiving, difficult to walk in, requires a heel and can give the impression of overdressed for a regular day in today’s ambiguous, “post-Covid era” of office dressing. It’s a relic of a time when women had to assert themselves at the table without offending their male counterparts. And listen, I’m not saying we are much far past this, or that we’re not headed in the reverse!!!! but it does feel like an ancient idea at this point.

And while the fight for office equality remains, I don’t see a ton of pencils in the world. At least not for office dressing. You see them on the Saint Laurent runway. Severe, sheer and most definitely not intended as a midtown uniform…at least not before 9pm. You see them in quirky suits with colorful tights at Miu Miu. Embellishment fit for a cocktail party at Prada. With a baggy t-shirt at Toteme and leather jackets at Bally. The interpretations today seem squarely LIFESTYLE. Which…we will come back to that.

But I am here to argue that the pencil is not dead. It’s just slightly evolved to be more agreeable with…2025 in general.

The pencil of today, one that can meet our totally reasonable demand of being able to walk up and down the subway stairs (or even the hallway for Christ’s sake!) is actually a straight skirt, with just hints of it’s pencil roots. I have procured two in the past three months (three if you count last week’s emerald beauty). All very different in their waistlines, but alike in their shape. You’ll see what I mean below.