So revolutionary and popular were miniskirts in the 1960’s that a plethora of accessories were made for them. This “Original Mini- Skirt Accessory” is easily one of the more insane ones. I guess the object was to remind you you were wearing a miniskirt when, clipped to the hem line, the little ball swinging from the 1-1/2″ long chain bounced or tick-tocked against your knee with each step.
The manufacturer, listed nowhere on the product or card it’s attached to, was trying to combine two late 60’s trends into one – miniskirts and peace symbols, often worn by two different groups of teenagers and young adults.
I think the nameless company needed to be a little more generous with the 1-1/2″ length of the tickler if, in fact, it was to hit the knee. The only way this would’ve reached there was with a full-length above-the-knee skirt, totally taking ‘mini’ out of the equation. I’ve enhanced the Knee Tickler to about three times its actual size to demonstrate:
It would actually take ten Knee Ticklers to reach the knee were it attached to an actual miniskirt. I mean no copyright infringement to McCalls but I’ve doctored the image to demonstrate. The Knee tickers are almost double their real size because they’d be too small to see.
I always love a product that merely capitalizes on a craze as opposed to serving any real function. And regardless of whether the little gold ball bangs against your thigh or knee, I would think it was less of a tickling effect than a bruising one after it slapped against your skin all day. It would make a better lapel pin anyway.
But then it never could’ve had such a spectacular name.
Georgia
That’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen in ages. At least a kilt ion held a kilt together and kept you from flashing folks in the wind. The school I attended through seventh grade had a strict “Skirts can be no more than two inches above the knee” policy. in fact, one of the headmasters would line us up in the hall and check with a ruler just to keep us on our toes. I can remember pulling skirts down a little bit from their elasticized waists hoping that would cut us some slack when it was our turn to be measured. We weren’t trying to be a show off, we merely had hit a growth spurt and our wardrobe hadn’t caught up with us. However, if we had been wearing a knee ticker, perhaps we would have been more conscious of our skirt lengths.
Georgia
That should have read kilt pin…not kilt ion. Silly auto-correct!
Allee
Auto correct drives me NUTS. But not as nuts as the stunning inaccuracy and crash rate of Dragon Dictate.
Linda
Loved reading about your house and collection in today’s New York Times!