Sporteen Skirt with a Surprise

At first glance this skirt simply looked like a nice early 1950s straight skirt in a lovely  color and with an interesting button placement.  But then I noticed the belt.  It was a golf tee holder.

By that time the seller was starting to unbutton the skirt, which is not a skirt at all.

It is actually a culotte or divided skirt, but  it is cleverly disguised by the stitched pleats.  The back is also stitched, and it just looks like an inverted pleat.

This was not a new idea in the 1950s.  Before it was acceptable for women to wear trousers, there were all kinds of ingenious ways to make a skirt have two legs.  I have an example from the 1910s in my collection, and it is quite similar to this 1950s culotte skirt.

I really don’t know a thing about Sporteens, except that the listings that I’ve found of items for sale with the label are overwhelmingly skirts.   I also found a 1944 ad for a jacket and matching skirt.

And here is a very similar one, but without the buttons, from California sportswear designer De De Johnson, 1952