BLANK Monkey Skirt – Acorn

Corduroy is a cut pile, which makes it one of the few common cottons with a direction to it. Extra weft floats are woven in, then sliced open, and the cut ends are brushed up into cords that stand off the ground weave. Run a hand up the wales and the cloth darkens; run it down and it lights. That is why a corduroy garment reads differently from the front and the back, and it is why it takes wear the way it does: the pile flattens first where the body presses hardest, so the seat and the pocket edges go glossy while the rest stays matte, and the garment ends up showing how it was used.

The Monkey Skirt puts that cloth on a cargo shape. Two large pockets at the sides and one at the back, which is a loaded skirt when it is used as intended, and a deep vent at the center back, which is the detail that makes the loading survivable: a straight skirt with weight in the side pockets stops walking, and a deep vent gives the stride back. Nothing has been softened to make the idea palatable. One hundred percent cotton, in Acorn, made in the USA.

Why we selected it

The cargo skirt is a shape that usually arrives as a costume, with the pockets shrunk to a signal and the cloth too light to hold anything in them anyway. We wanted the one where the pockets are the size they say they are, and corduroy has the body to carry them.

The Monkey Skirt is the shape BLANK has recut in cloth after cloth, which is usually the sign of a house that has found the thing it was looking for.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, woven as corduroy, in Acorn. Two large pockets at the sides, one at the back, and a deep vent at the center back. Made in the USA. We do not hold a wale count, a length, a waistband description, or a closure for this skirt. The wale count is the one of those worth a phone call before you buy, because it is the difference between a fine needlecord and a wide jumbo and those are two different skirts.

Fit notes

Sized on a short numeric run rather than on small, medium, and large. Corduroy has body: it holds a shape away from the leg rather than falling against it, so this reads fuller than the same pattern would in a flat cloth, and it will sit differently again once the side pockets have something in them. The vent at the center back is deep enough that stride is not what decides the size. We do not hold measurements. Call the store and someone will measure the waist and the length for you.

Styling

With a fine knit tucked in, so the waist is visible and the pockets read as the point rather than as bulk. Over a boot, because a vent that deep gives the leg away and a boot is what makes that look deliberate rather than accidental. The Monkey Skirt in ripstop is the same shape for the warm half of the year; this is the one for the other half.

Care

Cotton is the easy part and the pile is not. Wash corduroy inside out and cool, because the pile is what abrades in a machine, and keep it out of a tumble dryer, which crushes the cords flat. If it comes out flat anyway, steam and a soft brush worked along the wale will lift it again. Our care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Cropped BDU Jacket is the waist-length ripstop jacket, and the Arthur Pants are the worsted gabardine trouser. Everything we carry from this house is listed together.