A yoke is a shaped pattern piece that forms part of a garment, usually fitting around the neck and shoulders or around the hips to provide support for looser parts of the garment, such as a gathered

skirt A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards. At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of fabric (such as pareos). However, most skirts are fi ...

or the body of a

shirt A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist). Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for a broad variety of upper-body garments and undergarments. I ...

. Yoke construction was first seen in the 19th century. Bodice yokes were first seen in the 1880s, while the yoke skirt, a skirt suspended from a fitted hip yoke, was first seen in 1898.

References

Parts of clothing Tops (clothing) {{clothing-stub