Slipping Up

Kate Middleton's skirt flies up
image from Styleite

In the summer, when skirts and dresses are plentiful on the New York City sidewalks, one can easily spot women who are not wearing slips. Sometimes the dress is clinging in all the wrong places, or the skirt is a bit too see-through in the sunlight, or the hem flips up in the breeze. All of these unflattering issues can be resolved by wearing a slip.

When it's hot outside, the last thing one wants to do is add an additional layer of fabric, but wearing a slip with an unlined skirt makes a big difference in the way the skirt moves. Expensive dresses are cut to flow as the woman walks, but cheap dresses are cut only to cover the body and look attractive enough on a hanger to get someone to buy them. Simply adding a slip makes even cheap dresses flow a little more, which, in turn, makes the dress look a bit more expensive.

Such pretty colored slips
image from Folly

Without good underpinnings of all kinds, one is doing herself a disservice -- she will look heavier than she is, and clothing will pull and cling in very unflattering ways. With well-made clothing, one usually finds linings, but with cheap clothing, linings are often non-existent. In these cases, adding a slip is important.

I love pretty colored slips, because they can double as a nightgown when traveling, and if they accidentally become visible, one will not be too embarrassed.

Remember when the Duchess of Cambridge's yellow dress flipped up in the wind from the helicopter? She handled it very well, but adding a slip will keep one from being over-exposed in the wind during helicopter landings... and in the wind tearing down a city avenue.