I've been glancing at some of the survey results, and I can't thank you all enough for your input! I realize now that I probably should give you all a little more detail about the skirt length, since I've gotten a few comments about the length and sizing. This first wrap skirt version will come in two sizes - short and tall. The waist band will have many buttonhole options for wrapping, so that you can wrap the skirt to your waist size regardless of what length you wear. Katie and I talked about the length and sizing many different times throughout the prototyping process. We realize that shorter people will probably want a shorter length and taller people will probably want a longer length. For those of you who asked about shorter or longer options, you will be able to decide for yourself. If you are a taller person, you could always go with the shorter size for a shorter fit and for a shorter person, you could always wear the tall size for a longer fit. Eventually, if this first design and concept are popular enough, I hope to be able to offer some different skirt and dress designs as well. That is, at this point, a long way off, though!
In the meantime, my thinking on length went something like this: the skirt needs to be long enough for good coverage while riding, but short enough that it won't get caught in the pedals or rub against the chain. Also remember that as you pedal, your knees come up and a shorter skirt could become more restrictive in that sense. As it stands, the hidden center button basically turns the skirt into very loose-fitting shorts - I say very loose fitting because, with the button all the way at the bottom hem, you can barely even tell that it is attached. It is an added bonus that because the skirt wraps around so far, there are two layers of fabric in the front and the button attachment only connects with the inner layer leaving the front layer loose and skirt-like. Even if the front layer were to fly up, the bottom layer would not. There are two extra hidden button attachments (on each side) specifically for biking (see picture) - these keep all of that extra loose fabric on the sides from blowing backwards into the back tire.
Side buttons on the Bicycle Wrap Skirt Prototype.
All this to say, you could wear the skirt around town on a windy day (bike or no bike) with only the center button attached and never have to worry about it blowing up. No one would even realize that it's buttoned. I am definitely going to wear this out sailing one day as proof of concept. Many of you had great suggestions about how and where you might rock this skirt: over your yoga outfit on your way to class, to church, over a bathing suit to the beach, hiking, paddling. I love it! Seriously. I'm leaving the survey up for a while - until I have the design completely finalized, and I will have more questions for you as I move forward (think shorter surveys, just a single question or two). If you haven't taken the quick design survey yet, pop on over. You can take it here: Www.surveymonkey.com/s/WH26MR2