Your birthdate doesn’t matter. If  you didn’t wear a Poodle skirt when it first came out, you wore one for Halloween. If you missed out on either of the aforementioned, then you saw Poodle skirts in the movies Grease, Peggy Sue Got Married, or Cry Baby.

By all accounts, this fashion icon was started by Juli Charlot in 1947 when she needed a skirt to wear to a Christmas party in Los Angeles. Problem was, Juli lived at a time when you didn’t make a TJ Max run when you had nothing to wear –  and, Juli couldn’t sew. What Juli could do was use a pair of scissors.

Because felt was the only material wide enough to cut a complete circle without seams, Juli cut a big circle of felt with a hole in the middle to fit her waist and appliquéd Christmas trees to it. Eureka, the future of the Poodle skirt was born. A week after the party, she sold the skirt to raise money to learn how to sew at design school. Demand kept growing for her skirt, and Juli opened her own factory.  Money was tight, and Juli didn’t have any. Enter a New York designer who visited her factory and invested.  Juli had used many appliqué designs on her skirts, but it was the Poodle that took off. The Poodle skirt was born.

The popularity of the Poodle skirt was, in part, a welcomed change from the straight or pleated skirts worn up until then. The flirty petticoats and wide cinch belt were immensely feminine, and no doubt that the male part of the population approved.

Image found on Pinterest and happily credited upon receipt of information