Thirty centimetres above the ground: The regulation length for Greek skirts during the dictatorship of General Theodoros Pangalos, 1925–19261

Law is an instrument by which political power is exercised and protected. Moreover the emphasis of the instrumental use of law often assumes or implies that the state is able to achieve its goals. Law, through its enforcement, fulfils the goal of social control. Under the guise of efforts to preserve morality and order, authoritarian regimes often apply the strangest of laws and regulations. In Greece, the General Theodoros Pangalos during his dictatorship (1925–1926) applied a regulation in order to control the length of women’s skirts. Much to the astonishment of the Greek urban society – and to the content of the seamstresses – on 1 December 1925 it was announced that it would be forbidden for all women, when in public, to wear skirts with hemlines that would deviate from the ground more than 30 centimetres! Otherwise, the offenders would be prosecuted. What were the reasons behind the application of this regulation? How did it circumvent civil and social rights? How was it received by the public? How is fashion related to the freedom of expression and how do fashion trends move from being merely objectionable to illegal? These are the main questions that this article will try to answer.