Picture it: It’s 2016, mere hours before Thanksgiving dinner, and you’re still looking for an outfit that screams “autumnal.” You root through your closet, tossing aside your boho maxi dresses from Coachella until you find it: your new brown corduroy button-through skirt. Luckily, you already have the perfect Thanksgiving outfit in mind–pulling on your black lace-up long-sleeve and a pair of knee-high suede boots. You sharpen your eyebrows with your handy dandy Anastasia Beverly Hills brow pomade and crack open a brand new Kylie Lip Kit—it is a special occasion, after all—et voilà! You’ve never looked better. You memorialize it by snapping a mirror selfie on Snapchat (with the flower crown filter, of course).
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For several years, the button-through was just as endemic to the Thanksgiving table as stuffing and cranberry sauce. The stalwart skirt first picked up steam 10 years ago when YouTube vlogger Bethany Mota posted a “Thanksgiving Outfit Ideas!” video, one of which included a brown circle skirt with black buttons down the front. Mota paired her bottoms with a white sweater, light blue infinity scarf, polka-dot tights, white over-the-knee socks, and taupe suede booties.
The skirt took off in the following years, reaching the height of its power in 2016, preserved in time with Drake’s “One Dance” and Pokémon GO. It became a ubiquity, popping up all over frat party attendees, girls nights out, and first dates. But, most of all, it became something of a uniform for Thanksgiving, a point of consensus for those struggling to conceive an outfit suitable for fall festivities. It fits perfectly into the niche: the color palette and the coverage are both seasonally appropriate. By the time we get to the winter holidays, an orangey-brown skirt has already been tucked away until next year.
It’s clear that none of us has ever had an original thought, as demonstrated by the sheer volume of button-through skirt content on TikTok, where, while some deride the skirt, others stand by its universality. “All of a sudden the iconic brown skirt was being paired with a black turtleneck and a pair of booties to become not only the most iconic outfit combination of all time, but the staple for Thanksgiving outfits across America,” TikTok user Kaite Hubler said in a viral video about the button-through, which has since been viewed over 2 million times.