frfashion1-6, Exercise 1: "Courrèges invented the miniskirt"

Model answer (check the details), using the six questions:

1. Who says it? Courrèges and his house, French fashion writers, and, for the rival claim, Mary Quant and British writers.
2. What exactly is claimed? That one designer was the first to create the short skirt. "Invented" assumes one origin, and "miniskirt" needs a length: how short counts?
3. What would count as evidence? Dated garments, photographs and film, collection reports from 1958 to 1965, the testimony of the designers and their staff, and sales records.
4. Compared with what? Hemlines in the early 1960s, other designers who showed short skirts (for example in London boutiques and in the work of Quant's contemporaries), and the 1920s short skirt.
5. Which period? About 1960 to 1965.
6. What would change my mind? A dated example of a short skirt by someone else well before 1964, or evidence that the two designers worked independently at the same time.

Verdict: both designers used short skirts in the mid-1960s, Quant's King's Road shop was selling them to a young market earlier, and Courrèges brought them into high fashion in 1964 (check). It is more accurate to say that "the miniskirt had several sources, and both designers helped to make it a fashion". Quant has said that the street customers invented it by shortening skirts themselves (check).

Care: "first" claims are usually made by the people who gain from them. Look for contemporary photographs and reports.