Thank you to everyone replying!

Re: twirly skirts have been around for a long time: for me, “the turn of the 21st century” encompasses the 1990s (which is 35 years ago, which may or may not feel to any of us like “many many years” ago but objectively speaking is before many of the people in the contra community were born :) 

Part of what I want to establish is that this is not a new phenomenon — even though it hasn’t been systematically documented as far as I (and fwiw, a colleague of mine who is an expert in men’s and queer men’s fashion history) know. 

For me, all-gender contra skirts are interesting partly because they appear to separate the garment from its gendered connotations quite successfully — I don’t think most contra dancers these days would look at a male-bodied dancer wearing a skirt and say “ah, they are being effeminate”. 

Dresses, though, are a curious subcategory in this regard, as I would say that in my dance communities they are still used to signpost queerness. 

Louise.