It’s been 20 years since Miuccia Prada explained her philosophy on skirts. Fast forward to the present day, and her words are still ringing loudly in our ears: “For me, the skirt is like a T-shirt. So I put all my ideas there”. She goes on to explain that an eccentric skirt “doesn’t change that much about you” because it’s “waist down”. To me, it makes perfect sense: the closer to your face an item of clothing or accessory is, the more of a commitment it feels. It’s the same logic behind telling my hairdresser to keep a deep root when I get my hair coloured so I can be “spiritually brunette”.

Designer Miuccia Prada attends the Metropolitan Museum of Art annual Costume Institute gala in New York City. Prada wears her own design. (Photo by Fairchild Archive/Penske Media via Getty Images)

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I have a penchant for a low-effort, high-payoff outfit, and this is why I love skirts so much. When in the thick of climate-change-induced heatwaves, the last thing you want is to be uncomfortable, but as fashion folk, if there’s a way to hack the system and stay cool without sacrificing style, then it’s all aboard! A dramatic skirt is the antidote to a potentially boring top. Case in point: Carrie Bradshaw in her tutu, elevating a simple vest to become part of a look that made fashion history. Then there are Salma Hayek’s evening skirts and kitsch little cardigans and bandeaus on red carpets in the ’90s, which remain on mood boards to this day.

Salma Hayek (Photo by Kevin Mazur Archive/WireImage)

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The word on the street is that it’s a statement-skirt summer, and one of the undisputed It styles of the season is the “party skirt” by Versace, by way of Dario Vitale’s one-and-done collection as creative director. The scandal surrounding the collection lends it some infamy and notoriety, and the skirt is the perfect piece to wear as I lay back on the hill I would die on, which is that multicolour pieces are easier to style than most neutrals. They go with everything, and the party skirt is no different. I have worn this skirt nonstop since it arrived at my door. Throwing on a fabulous, colourful skirt and a top is just as low effort as putting on a T-shirt and jeans. Two items are all it takes; why not choose the more elevated path?

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Alana Hadid did for the launch of her trainer collab with ARKK at CPHFW. She paired a bubblegum-pink trainer in a “dad” silhouette with a just-as-pink “princess” skirt and a tied black tee. As if by magic, the huge plumes of her skirt seemed, dare I say, casual—it’s all in the styling! The look reminded me of a Copenhagen version of Claudia Schiffer by Arthur Elgort in 1994 in a knotted Genny cardigan and a billowing taffeta skirt by Atelier Versace. As we veer into autumn, the cardigan will be the fun skirt’s Type A bestie: Saffy up top and Eddie below the waist.

Model Claudia Schiffer leans against a 1967 white Fiat 500 on the street in Rome, Italy. She is wearing a waist-tied pink wool cardigan by Genny over a Taroni silk taffeta skirt by Atelier Versace.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

My own wardrobe has become incredibly skirt-heavy of late, so I’ve been tasking myself with making sure they all get a good outing. I accidentally got the girls in a frenzy when I posted a recent instalment of my video series where I show real outfits alongside the real (read: chaotic) background situation in my flat as a mum who works in fashion. In a week of work and school runs, I truly wore a Dries Van Noten skirt covered in tiny loose threads that looks like it could have been made by Cookie Monster if he went to Central Saint Martins, a lime green and white Sunnei skirt with the texture of a cracked meringue, a vintage Escada skirt in bright pink and green houndstooth, a throwback Evisu skirt and the aforementioned Versace number.

Your outfit is a gallery, and the skirt is the main event.