Dress Midi, 1970s

John Burr Fairchild owner of powerful fashion trade journal Women's Wear Daily declared 1970 to be the year of the Midi. June Weir, the first woman Vice President at Fairchild Publications, was running this Midi campaign. The back ground story goes like this: Fairchild first got the midi notion in 1966 when he saw Zhivago-inspired coats in Paris. By the following spring, the look was beginning to show up in ready-to-wear collections, and June Weir coined the word midi to describe it. [Time Magazine, Out on a Limb with the Midi, Monday, September 14, 1970]

They all tried to convince women that Midi was going to be the dress of the year.

And yet, Midi dress found few takers. American women rejected this calf-length dress, instead they were happy in their 60s style mini skirts.

And yet, by late 1970s, Midi made it to the Indian shore.

A comic scene from the film Pati Patni Aur Woh (1978) in which we were introduced to the "Midi".

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