Fifteen years ago this month, the first issue of skirt! was published in Charleston, SC and 180 issues later, we’ve gone from clueless baby to crazy teenager, from one city to 15, from being called “feminazis” to redefining feminism in our own way. There have been a succession of firsts since we started, but unfortunately, women are still coming in last in far too many areas. We never imagined we’d come so close to having the first woman president back then, but we also never imagined we’d have an all-male state senate here in South Carolina in 2009. Ladies, there is work to be done everywhere there’s a skirt!. The women we’ve profiled, partied with and politicked with are nothing less than astounding—why don’t they rule the world? The men who have had the cojones to appear in skirt! wearing skirts are the kind we’d all like to have for best friends (or take home at the end of the night).

We’ve been imitated enough to make us throw around a few F-bombs and then vow to be so original the copycats wouldn’t be able to keep up because, yes, we’re proudly competitive. We’ve been through weddings and funerals, births and breakups, housewarmings and happy hours with each other. The stories we could tell are side- splitting and heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking and occasionally infuriating, but we’d have to leave town and change our names in order to write that book. Unlike Eve’s fig leaf, fashioned from shame, our skirt! is a badge of honor, a red flag in the face of political bull, a call to action. Next month, we’re starting a new feature on how ordinary women can make a difference in the world, ways to wear a skirt! attitude every day. Send your ideas to publisher@skirt.com, and they might be included in a future issue. In the meantime, the Champagne is chilling and so are we. After all, it’s not every day you turn 15—and part of a skirt! attitude is knowing when to party.