Are you a Retro fashion fan? Get a classic 1950s Poodle skirt!

Ironically, Retro fashions in your wardrobe may well be some of the most individualistic pieces in your closet. After all, almost everyone else is wearing a modern costume, which you’ll see on a dozen different people walking down the street. Although Retro fashions have already been on the scene before, in decades past, people tend to forget these old styles. Retro fashions garner a second look today, because they are now a fresh look once again, fifty years later. One such classic is the 1950s vintage Poodle skirt. In the 1950s, every girl had one, generally worn to a sock hop.

In case you’re too young to remember the sock hop, this was a casual dance event, usually held in the school auditorium or at community park centers during the summer. The standard saddle shoe, worn with bobby socks was the perfect complement to the Poodle skirt. The Poodle skirt was the central fashion statement. It could be worn with a fitted cotton blouse or three-quarter length sweater, fitted at the waist.

So what made a Poodle skirt authentic? The Poodle and the cut of the skirt. This distinctive skirt is cut on the bias and boasts plenty of fabric, for a full skirt which twirled dramatically as you danced to American Bandstand hits of the day. Some girls preferred to enhance the look with a petticoat, while others liked a less flamboyant look, sans petticoat.

Placement of the poodle is important for the genuine Poodle skirt. The poodle is usually an appliqué, sewn on to the left hand side of the skirt. The Poodle likeness is most often placed right where a patch pocket might be located. Others sport the fanciful poodle caricature nearer to the hem. The fabric of the skirt is almost always of a single color. Pink and gray are the most authentic color combinations. A white Poodle skirt might have the pink-and-gray theme incorporated into the Poodle appliqué, with a double row of rick-rack, one pink and one gray, at the hem, to tie the whole look together. The typical pink and gray combo come in pale shades, but you may be lucky enough to find one of the more radical bright pink shades worn at the time. The girl who wears this one stands out in the crowd of 1950s Retro dressers and would have been considered quite the hot chick with boys of that era!

Oddly enough, conventional jewelry is not a required accessory for proper Poodle skirt wearing. Pop-beads, cheap, plastic necklace and bracelet beads, are cool accessories, if you can find them. Other than that, the shirt-blouse or the fitted sweater is all you need. The must-have is the saddle shoes and bobby socks! You’re ready to rock!