A leading plastic surgeon has warned of the risk of serious burn injury posed by the increasingly fashionable flowing "gypsy" skirts.
Dr Catriona Lawlor from the National Burns Unit (NBU) at St James's Hospital in Dublin said there had been a "significant increase" in the number of women with skirt-related injuries being treated in the past year.
Dr Lawlor attributed the rising incidence of burn injuries to the fashion for wearing long flowing cotton and nylon Bohemian-style skirts with lots of billowing material. Women and girls are being injured from standing too close to open fires, heaters and candles without realising.
Dr Lawlor said that seven women have been treated at the NBU since last Christmas for burns sustained when their skirts went on fire, compared to 11 in the previous three years.
She said five of these women required skin grafts, with two of them needing multiple operations.
There has also been a noticeable upwards trend of such injuries in the Crumlin Children's Hospital.
"Because of all the additional material, people tend to stand near heat sources and not really realise they are getting hot until it's too late and the skirt goes up in flames," Dr Lawlor said this morning.
"Also, because [the material] swings, it tends to fan the flame and the skirt can go up much quicker."
She said there was no evidence that expensive skirts were less flammable than cheap ones.