How do I keep my dress from riding up under my backpack?

July 6, 2012 8:01 PM

How do I keep my dress from riding up under my backpack? (more inside)

I have slippery bloomers on underneath, which keeps the dress from riding up by itself. But my backpack reliably hauls the back of my skirt up. When I push the bottom of my backpack away from my butt, the dress slips back down, but I'd really rather not have to do that every twenty steps.

(I've tried non-slippery legging-type shorts too. The dress rides up slower but I have to haul it back down - it doesn't slip back down as soon as I push the backpack away a little. Also I think it rides up a bit even without the backpack.)

I use my backpack instead of a purse - partly because carrying a purse on one shoulder makes my back sore - so I don't want to get rid of the backpack.

Private school girls have been wearing skirts and backpacks for a long time - surely there must be a solution?

posted by fullerenedream to clothing, beauty, & fashion (22 answers total)

Can you adjust the straps such that the bottom of the bag rests higher up on your back? Although that might only work for skirts and not as well for dresses. Hm.
posted by elizardbits at 8:08 PM on July 6, 2012

I think it will only really work if the material your dresses are made from is very heavy.
posted by heyjude at 8:09 PM on July 6, 2012

Get a backpack with a decent waist strap - that will put the weight of the pack on your hips, and cinches tight, so that the dress won't be able to ride up.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:10 PM on July 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

use sock garters with suspender clips as skirt garters to hold your skirt down.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:16 PM on July 6, 2012

I wear a messenger bag and have the same problem. I have developed a now-unconscious habit of nudging my bag away from my hip every ten steps to keep my skirt from hitching all the way up my left thigh.
posted by desuetude at 8:16 PM on July 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

elizardbits: Unfortunately because the backpack is long and narrow (and my back is not), it rests on the top of my butt and I can't adjust it to rest on the small of my back instead. Tightening the straps only pushes it more tightly against my butt.
posted by fullerenedream at 8:18 PM on July 6, 2012

crush-onastick: Have you tried this? How does it look with a flowy skirt? I'm not sure how the garter would interact with my bloomers... and I'm not ditching the bloomers. They're essential for avoiding summer thigh rub.
posted by fullerenedream at 8:23 PM on July 6, 2012

Have you tried tying a sweater around your waist? I don't know if that would help or not, but there's a chance it might. And as I recall from my long-ago backpack days, wearing it on one shoulder was still pretty comfortable - more so than a heavy purse with a thin strap.
posted by DestinationUnknown at 8:26 PM on July 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

I constantly have to readjust clothes to keep them right.

I think you should actually try loosening the straps -- this would, in theory, decrease the consistent pressure and allow the backpack to naturally bounce a little which would allow the dress to slip back down. In theory.
posted by DoubleLune at 8:29 PM on July 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I have the same problem too -- and the same habit as desuetude. I've actually been thinking lately about sewing some silky or otherwise slippery fabric to the back of the pack soot slides around.
posted by mamabear at 8:33 PM on July 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

I wear the garters for biking, so I'm not entirely sure how effective it would be for you, but they're great for biking. But they definitely work for holding the skirt in place and it's a very low impact solution.

Each garter has two clips--for socks, one goes in front and one goes in back. When I use them for skirts, I orient them to the sides of my thigh/knee (depending on hem length). If I fasten both clips on a single garter to a full skirt, it is obvious while I'm walking. If I fasten just one clip, it is not particularly visible while I'm walking.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:38 PM on July 6, 2012

I have never found a way to beat the skirt creep when wearing a backpack or purse. Sometimes just having the backpack over one shoulder helps but that's all I got. Maybe try putting your hands at the top of the straps at the front and pulling to kind of lift the bottom of the pack up?
posted by triggerfinger at 8:39 PM on July 6, 2012

triggerfinger: Yes, that works, but it's uncomfortable to hold the pack that way all the time. Doing it every now and then is how I implement desuetude's semi-solution.

mamabear: I too thought of sewing slippery fabric to the backpack back. I'm hesitant to alter my backpack in any way because it's very well designed and manufactured (it's MEC), but if nothing else works I think I will try that!

crush-onastick: Hmm. I don't think I could use the garters and also wear bloomers under my dress, though it might work if I had shorter, tighter under-dress-shorts. But what I'm thinking now is... maybe I could attach little clips directly onto my bloomers, and clip the dress to those, and so my bloomers would take the place of the garters! But if the clips are on the sides, they won't stop the skirt from riding up in the back... so I would have to attach the clips to the back of the legs of the bloomers. I wonder whether the super light fabric the bloomers are made of would be able to handle the pulling... maybe I could wear the garters UNDER the bloomers, and just make slits in the bloomers for the clips to go through?
posted by fullerenedream at 9:46 PM on July 6, 2012

I like that this is turning into a sewing/engineering problem :)
posted by fullerenedream at 9:46 PM on July 6, 2012

Just in case anyone thinks I have this licked... I would love to hear more suggestions!
posted by fullerenedream at 10:13 PM on July 6, 2012

Would dress weights help?
posted by rdr at 11:03 PM on July 6, 2012

the answer is a full slip in silk or rayon/poly etc. a half slip will work, too, or at least better than just slippery underwear, but a full slip (under both dresses and under skirt/top combos) is the way to go for seriously smooth clothes with backpacks, messenger bags, anything that tugs at your clothes. with the right slip, there's nowhere for the dress to hitch up on.
posted by peachfuzz at 1:42 AM on July 7, 2012

I used to have this problem. But now that I have a backpack that is shorter and wider, so it sits in the small of my back and has a good waist belt plus is well adjusted in general so it sits tight against my back, the problem is mostly gone. We do a lot of hiking and long distance walking so it was worth paying to fix the problem (having my shirt basically disappear up the back over several kilometres was super annoying and any tick to adjust it can cause injuries after several hours of doing it). Now my clothes stay in place and I can walk normally without worrying about what's going on back there. But no amount of changing my clothes around made any difference, this is a backpack issue and yours sounds like it's perfectly designed to grab and drag up anything you're wearing.
posted by shelleycat at 5:27 AM on July 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

the answer is a full slip in silk or rayon/poly etc. a half slip will work, too, or at least better than just slippery underwear, but a full slip (under both dresses and under skirt/top combos) is the way to go for seriously smooth clothes with backpacks, messenger bags, anything that tugs at your clothes. with the right slip, there's nowhere for the dress to hitch up on.

I'm sure this helps, but I saw a woman the other day with her skirt mostly hitched up under her backpack, and with her slip hanging down (so at least her modesty was preserved, but...). As shelleycat says, I think you solve this with the right backpack, not by altering the dress.
posted by Forktine at 6:00 AM on July 7, 2012

with the right slip, there's nowhere for the dress to hitch up on.

The problem is the skirt is hitching up on the backpack. No undergarment is going to help with that.

OP, when I wore a backpack and wanted to wear skirts I just developed the habit of stealthily gripping a bit of my skirt, at about hip level, keeping it from riding up. I know that's not ideal but it's a little less intrusive than adjusting your backpack so your skirt falls back down. Also, skirts made of denim or heavier material tend to not do this, as do tighter pencil style skirts.
posted by apricot at 7:01 AM on July 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

If you don't want to do much to alter the backpack, why not use some stick on velcro on the backpack and the other half on some silky fabric?
posted by sarae at 11:05 AM on July 7, 2012

I have this problem too! and by observation i found that it's cause of putting heavy items at the bottom of the bag. Mine's this. the pocket in the front i kept pretty heavy stuff, so the bag kept riding my tunic up my back. hope this helps. I haven't figured out a solution yet.
posted by sausagedoggie15 at 12:02 AM on November 14, 2012