What makes a slip skirt a slip skirt, you might wonder? Is it because you can literally slip it on and off with ease? Or perhaps it’s the silken texture that makes plastic chairs feel like a slip and slide? In actual fact, it’s because of their original purpose, which is to slip under any item of clothing. The thin layer of fabric was first intended to separate your underwear from your clothing, smoothing silhouettes, mitigating sheerness and stopping tricky fabrics from clinging. Today, however, after many a designer and high-street reimagining, the slip skirt is the easiest way to dabble in the age-old underwear-as-outerwear trend.
Last summer, the lace-trimmed slip was a sleeper hit. Vogue’s Emma Spedding wrote in June 2025, “designers like The Row, Prada, and Dries Van Noten put the focus on the romantic, lacy slip skirt – a top fashion trend for the season. Despite their lingerie-inspired look and feel, these sultry staples are not limited to the bedroom.”
But it seems It-girls, as of late, have shed their boudoir frills, lace and ruffles in favour of something sleeker and more Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy coded. Zoë Kravitz, Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner, among others, are making a case for the skirt as a new spring wardrobe essential, rooted in 1990s minimalism. To understand its current appeal, you have to look back to the decade that made it iconic.
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in an black slip skirt, off-the-shoulder top and kitten heels in 1997. Ron Galella/Getty Images
Kate Moss in a slip skirt, camisole and two-tone pumps in 1995. Tom Wargacki
As a rejection of excess, slip skirts were worn low-slung and unfussy, often paired with nothing more than a ribbed tank, a simple tee or a barely-there camisole, in the same way they are being styled today. Kate Moss made the look synonymous with off-duty cool while Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy elevated the piece as evening wear. Designers of the era, such as Calvin Klein and Jil Sander, championed the clean lines and easy wear of the bias-cut slip.
Whether rendered in liquid silk, matte satin or cut from daring sheer fabrics, the slip skirt has become a foundational wardrobe piece that anchors spring outfits. Skewing office-ready with the right tailoring or shirting, “undone” with casual separates, or evening-appropriate with a shift in texture and proportion much like Carolyn’s. Here, the outfit formulas all the It-girls are wearing now – and how to recreate them for yourself.
