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A hobble skirt is a skirt with a seemingly narrowed hem that suggests the wearer is significantly impeded from taking a normal stride. Although restrictive skirts first appeared in Western fashion in around 1880, the term is typically used in reference to a short-lived trend of narrow skirts in around 1913. The Parisian couturier Paul Poiret is sometimes credited with the design but in fact the extreme of the hobble skirt is an evolution of the narrowing skirt seen in fashion since the turn of the century. Poiret had been influencing fashion since 1908 with his designs of orientalist inspired fashions, including kimono cut sleeves and layered draped skirts and harem pants which create the same silhouette. However, Poiret was a liberator of the female body and was instrumental in the modernization of women's dress including corsetless ankle length garments.

Although contemporary publications including postcard images such as the one pictured here make fun of the extremes of the hobble skirt and its apparent tendency to hobble its wearers, in reality most hobbled skirts were achieved through the use of slits, hidden pleats, and draping that did not restrict a woman's ability to move freely. After all, it was in this period that women were becoming more active in sports such as bicycling, golf, and tennis. Also, upon the dance floor, the new dances of the tango and foxtrot required women to take large strides and turns, something that would have been impossible in a hobbled hemline. The most restricting extant styles from the period, which truly do hobble the wearer, are found in wedding dresses when a woman was only required to take small measured steps down the aisle of a church.

Long tight skirts would reappear through the century in various forms, particularly in evening gowns, as well as daytime 'pencil' skirts popular in the 1950s. A more literal interpretation of hobble skirts became a mainstay in bondage-oriented fetish fashion, often made out of leather, PVC, or latex. For example, they were a regular topic in the 1950s John Willie fetish magazine, Bizarre.

Video Clips of hobble skirts