Fashion may be trying to play a joke on us. The punch line is the jumpsuit. The jumpsuit induces visceral reactions, and nobody is without an opinion. For some, it's a sexy outfit for assertive women like Pam Grier, for others it's too utilitarian. One reason for our ambiguous feelings towards the jumpsuit can be traced back to 1970s movies and TV shows and its many depictions of science fiction.

Sexy or Utilitarian?
Jaclyn Smith made jumpsuits sexy by being one of the original characters in Charlie's Angels in the 1970s. The 1970s also brought us Pinky Tuskadero on Happy Days, who was sultry in her silver jumpsuit, which she wore to ride her motorcycle.

The jumpsuit took on a more menacing force when it was worn by Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. The masculine jumpsuit was reminiscent of Top Gun flight suits and bright orange prison suits. Previously the jumpsuit had comedic appeal, when it worn as part of the Ghostbusters uniform in 1984.

The jumpsuit has oft been cast as a futuristic outfit, and can also be seen in This Island Earth (1955), Buck Rogers In The Twenty-Fifth Century (1979-1981), Fantastic Voyage (1966), Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine and Aeon Flux (2005).

The future may be here already, since jumpsuits have found their way back to TV. The Dharma jumpsuits on Lost have become nearly iconic for millions of fans, and any Lost party or Halloween party would be incomplete without the tan work jumpsuit and Dharma logo.

At the same time the jumpsuit is working on Lost, it's being worn on MTV's The Hills, including the Helmut Lang twill jumpsuit worn by one Audrina. These two current examples show our ambiguous relationship with the jumpsuit: is it sexy or utilitarian, and can it ever fall somewhere in between?

Casual and Sexy
The casual and sexy jumpsuit, with bandeau or tube top and no straps is today's answer to the jumpsuit.

The pencil skirt first emerged as a style with a name after World War II. With the end of cloth rationing, clothes could once again be luxurious and used fabric in ways more inventive than utilitarian military styling. This led both to the full, crinoline skirts of the 1950s, but also to longer, sleek styles that echoed pre-World War I silhouettes with their full busts and corseted waists. These styles also emphasized hips and were made even more dramatic by a fishtail flare around the ankles.

By the end of WWII, a more casual world filled with more active women only supported the fishtail detail for evening or formal occasions, but the long narrow skirt, now dubbed a pencil skirt, was ready to make a comeback. These tight skirts in their most extreme form were essentially hobble skirts -- difficult to walk in and almost impossible to sit down in. The look was emphasized by a corseted waist, emphasized by how this fashion of the times was photographed with the model standing with one foot behind the other and angling their hips forward to make the skirt look even narrower than it was.

As the sixties approached, skirts began to change again with hemlines going up and structure and tightness going down. These more freely moving skirts became the dominant fashion statement in the 1970s, but the pencil skirt was far from dead.

The pencil skirt reemerged as a fashion item in the 1980s as a curvier look became fashionable for women again, and highly structure clothes appealed as women became more focused on taking leadership positions in the workplace. The pencil skirt of the 1980s, though, was slightly more practical, often being styled with buttons or even a zipper up the back to allow the woman to adjust the skirt to make it easier to move in.

While the 1990s saw a retreat from structured clothing with retro-70s styles and the emergence of the grunge look, structured clothes returned with the turn of the millennium -- a trend inspired both by an interest in the fashion of the first half of the 20th century and the fact that war-time fashions historically tend to be structured. Today's pencil skirts, often paired with a "secretary blouse" (tight waist, short puffed sleeves and loose but suggestive bust line) are shorter than the hobbling pencil skirts of the 1950s, usually coming in at about knee length, but their strong silhouette continues to be appealing.