Culottes vs Skorts

Guess what came in the mail?



My little mustard yellow Anthropologie card! It came in a little brown envelope, tucked into a tiny floral drawstring pouch! ooh such extravagance! i likey!

Not that i'm ever going to be able to afford or buy anything from Anthropologie. But they provide such great Pinspirations!

My girlies had a discussion the other day: Culottes vs Skorts

Never in my life have I EVER heard the term "skorts" and i thought they meant "Culottes". So when I said it, they all went "Whaaaa?"

Apparently, I was the weirdo.

So i decided to do a little research of my own.

According to wiki...

the word "culottes" describes a split or divided skirt or any garment that "hangs like a skirt but is actually pants". During the Victorian Era (mid- to late-nineteenth century) long split skirts were developed for horseback riding so that women could sit astride a man's saddle rather than riding side-saddle. The term "culottes" was co-opted from the original French definition of the word to describe these split riding skirts. Later, split skirts were developed to provide women more freedom to do activities such as gardening, cleaning, bike riding, etc. and still look like one is wearing a skirt.

and a skort...

In place of the term "culottes," the term skort (a portmanteau for skirt and shorts) is more widely used in some areas. While some garments sold as culottes resemble short trousers, to truly be a skort it needs to look like a skirt. Thus, they differ from trousers or shorts by being much fuller at the bottom (hem) than at the waist. A skort is shorts that have a front covering to resemble a skirt or short pant legs with a same length or longer skirt sewn over the top.

So i went to anthropologie.com and found this!


Odonata Culottes

Too cute!

And this at freepeople.com


Skorts

I guess culottes still look like a pair of shorts, just a little more flirty, flared pair of shorts. But a skort needs to really look like a skirt. Or maybe they're just used interchangeably.


Bleagh. What do they know.


What do you call it?