Women's Skort (Skirts)

A skort puts a pair of shorts underneath a skirt panel, so the skirt is the part you see and the shorts do the covering. Two builds exist: a real skirt with a short liner attached at the waistband, or a pair of shorts with a panel of fabric stitched across the front and left open at the back.

The inner short is what changes the behavior. Since your thighs meet fabric instead of each other, the chafing that ends a hot day in a skirt does not happen. You can sit, bend, serve a tennis ball or lift a child without thinking about the hem. Liners are usually a smooth stretch knit cut about an inch shorter than the outer layer so they stay hidden. Pockets can go into the liner, which is how a skort carries a phone where a skirt cannot.

A pleated skirt asks you to manage it; a skort with a pleated front looks similar from three feet away and asks nothing. A wrap skirt opens at the front, which is the exact problem a skort removes. Set against biker shorts, listed under shorts, the skort adds the panel and the coverage that comes with it. Athletic dresses, sold with activewear, apply the same idea to a full one-piece.

Tennis, golf, hiking and theme parks all reward it, because you can move without managing a hem. Hot climates suit it, and so does anyone whose thighs touch, since that is the problem it was designed around. Formal settings do not, because the liner eventually shows at the hem and the fabric is almost always a performance knit. Where a garment needs to drape, this is the wrong pick, since two layers never hang like one.

Lift the outer panel and look at the liner length and leg opening. A liner reaching the outer hem, or past it, will show; one that grips the thigh will roll up. Two layers should be joined only at the waistband, since stitching further down makes the skirt hang stiffly. Waistbands want to be wide and flat, because this is a garment you wear while moving. Heat is what kills the liner, so wash it cool and dry it on a rack. The stretch goes long before the outer fabric wears out.