Senior class passes skirt to different girl each day at school | by CAROLINE THOMPSON

Making her way across the Quad on an August day, senior Gaby Wilson overheard snickers and concealed laughter from fellow students.”I can”t believe she”s wearing that.””Could she not get it hemmed?”   Wilson continued on her way, unphased by the jabs at her ensemble. “Yeah, I was expecting [that reaction],” Wilson said.  “I didn”t care.  I thought it was funny.  I wanted the younger people to think I was serious.”

The garment students were referring to is the ankle-length, vibrantly plaid, light woolen “traveling skirt”: the skirt that every senior would wear at least one day of this school year.

Wilson and her friends, senior Brady Essmann and alumnae Anna Boisseau and Anna Essmann discovered the familiar, tartan plaid skirt while shopping at the Disabled American Veterans thrift store on Wornall Road this summer.  The skirt resembled the typical STA skirt, only longer, including Velcro straps securing the waist and a slit on the side.  Boisseau tried it on and Brady followed after.  Next, Wilson slipped into the skirt.  “The skirt fit [Boisseau] perfectly,” Brady said. “… I tried [the skirt] on and it fit me, too. We said, ”If it fits [Wilson]’s tiny body then it”s a universal skirt and we’re buying it.”The girls left the store $6 shorter and holding a long, outdated kilt in their hands.  Because it seemed to fit everyone, the girls wanted to pass around the skirt to each senior to wear for a day.  Brady said it would be like “the sisterhood of the traveling skirt” ‘” a play off Ms. Ann Brashares popular book and movie series, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”

‘We thought it would be really funny,’ Brady said.  ‘Plus we thought passing around this kilt that goes down past your knees would be a fun way to bond with the girls in the class.’

The next step was to gain the approval of the administration.  Brady, the senior class vice president, proposed the idea of the traveling skirt to president Nan Bone, principal for academic affairs Barbara McCormick and principal for student affairs Mary Anne Hoecker at a class officer meeting in June.  The administrators had no problem with the skirt, according to Brady, as long as every senior could fit into it and have an equal opportunity to wear it.  Brady assured them that the Velcro waist would accommodate any size, and there are enough days in the school year for each girl to wear it at least once, if she chooses.

‘[The administration] was very supportive,’ Brady said.  ‘I remember walking up the stairs when [Hoecker] shouted, ‘ËœLookin’ good!  How does it feel to be wearing the skirt?’  I think they really love the idea.’Â The seniors have also responded positively to the “traveling skirt.”  Several seniors have worn the skirt already, passing it on to a friend or any other senior who asks for it.”I love the idea that everyone gets to wear [the skirt],” said senior Kristina Strader, who was one of the first girls to wear the kilt.  “It”s a really good example to other classes of how close you can get with your class.” The seniors have not decided what will become of the traveling skirt after the school year.

‘If we want to keep it as a memento, we could frame it,’ Brady said.  ‘Or if we wanted to keep the tradition going, we could have a ceremony and pass it down to the class of 2011.  It just depends on what our class wants to do.’

Regardless of where the skirt ends up, Brady says the kilt is an important means of bonding and a tradition that will hopefully continue.  That quirky, goofy nature, she says, is something that can only be found at STA.

‘Sometimes I can hear freshman being like, ‘ËœOh my gosh. What is she wearing?” Brady said. ‘And I think to myself, ‘ËœYou’ll understand in three years.”