Originally invented in the ’50s, then gaining popularity again in the ’80s and 2000s, bubble skirts (also known as puffballs) are making a comeback in 2024.
With its rounded shape and cropped length, the skirt is a silhouette more suited to party than work: earlier this month, Dazed magazine declared that “the cheeky, indie-inspired bubble skirt is this summer’s biggest trend.”
Resale app Depop says it’s seen a 226% increase in searches on its platform since the start of last year. These pieces can be seen on the catwalk (Miu Miu, Aaron Esch, Niklas Skovgaard) and on the high street (ASOS, Weekday, New Look). The bubble skirt’s rise in popularity has also been fuelled by its wearers, including celebrities like Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Dean, as well as fashionable twenty-somethings living in areas like Dalston, East London.
Cristóbal Balenciaga and Pierre Cardin first introduced the bubble silhouette in the ’50s, a time when fashion was all about volume.
While some might associate it with the indie sleaze of the 2000s (see Amy Winehouse at the 2007 Brit Awards), designers working with the silhouette today are harkening back to the ’80s, the decade that made the puffball fashionable, thanks to designers like Christian Lacroix and celebrities like Princess Diana and Paula Yates.
Known for his bubble skirts, Skovgaard recently showed his Spring/Summer 2025 collection at Copenhagen Fashion Week, which was partly inspired by ’80s aerobics style and featured various takes on the bubble skirt. “As a child in the early ’90s, I saw a lot of photos of my mother wearing bubble skirts and dresses as a young woman in the ’80s, so I’ve had an association with ’80s style over the last few years,” he said.
Skogard says the bubble skirt is the brand’s signature piece, but its popularity has only grown in the past six months. “It’s really nice to see people wearing bubble skirts on the street,” she says. “It’s also fun to find people digging out their old bubble skirts from their mom’s closet and giving them new life.”
London Fashion Week designer Aaron Esch also designed a bubble skirt for his spring collection. Inspired by a vintage skirt from his girlfriend, Esch says the silhouette is “very ’80s, almost silly. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but it’s not appropriate and yet it’s so fun.”
Esch updated the design by pairing it with “traditionally uninteresting fabrics like grey tailoring and tweed.”
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The resulting product, priced at £500, became the brand’s best-seller.
Enni Svea, fashion features director at The Face magazine, said that even if many bubble-skirt lovers can’t afford the higher price tags, designs like Esch’s are essential to popularizing the trend. “When you see young designers doing that silhouette in a really cool way, it creates a sense of playfulness and aspiration.”
Importantly, she adds, bubbles are an inclusive silhouette that will appeal to any personal style: “It’s so versatile, anyone can wear it.”
Volume adds another element, she says: “You don’t have to worry about being seen as much as you would if you were wearing something like a pleated mini skirt.”
Depop claims the bubble skirt’s appeal extends beyond party wear: “It’s a versatile piece that can be easily dressed up or down,” a spokesperson for the app says. “The skirt creates a unique silhouette and is popular with Gen Z and millennials who use fashion as a form of self-expression.”
But are bubble skirts a bubble that will burst once summer is over? “It’s a really interesting piece and will continue to have a place on the street style circuit,” says Saber, but Esch is moving on. “When you see it on the high street, you know it’s mainstream,” he says. And at his next show, due in September, the bubble skirt is nowhere to be seen.