A fashion choice in which a woman wears a skirt (or dress) over a pair of pants or shorts.
In Anime, it's common for some girls to wear bike shorts under their skirts, the characterization usually being one of shyness or tomboyishness (athletes are popular users of this trope). See also Modesty Shorts, for when a girl wears shorts under her miniskirt to avoid Panty Shots, and Tights Under Shorts, the sister trope to this.
It's also a very common outfitting choice in Kid Com shows, as well as for Adorkable female characters.
Note that this is applicable only when either the skirt or the pants could be done away with completely without making the outfit too risqué. Oddly enough some shows will still grant the wearer a Magic Skirt even though there's no panties to see.
Often seen in Real Life.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
Naruto: Sakura is an example for both variants. Before the Time Skip, she wears tight shorts underneath a quipao-like dress, afterwards she keeps the shorts and wears them with a short skirt and a sleeveless zipper vest.
Save for the Fresh Pretty Cure! and Suite Pretty Cure ♪ team, bike shorts under a skirt is a common piece of the Pretty Cure outfit. However, thanks to the wonders of Magic Skirt, it's impossible to figure out certain ones unless the shorts are visable.
Chihaya in the first five minutes of Chihayafuru when she is tacking a karuta club flyer to the bulletin board. Miyauchi-sensei was not pleased.
In Sangatsu No Lion, Hinata Kawamoto's casual wardrobe mainly consists of dresses over jeans.
Comics — Books
In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Supergirl wears a pleated red skirt over her Supergirl outfit (which is otherwise identical in design to Superman's usual costume). She was drawn with shorts under her skirt in the regular comics as well before her costume changed with the universe reboot in 2011.
Misfit, the teen member of the Birds Of Prey, usually wears knee-length bike shorts under her short skirt, probably for the same reasons as Supergirl, above.
In IDW's Transformers "-ations" series, the tomboyish Verity Carlo◊ wears a skirt over leggings-style pants.
Fan Works
Shugo Kino in Pretty Cure Heavy Metal already wears her gym shorts (which actually resemble shorts) under her uniform whenever she goes to school at Isuten Junior High, but this trope is a LOT more obvious in the colder months, where she wears blue jeans under her uniform instead (as seen in later season 1 episodes), which allows for a non-Fanservicy variation of Dress Hits Floor in one scene in episode 41.
Films — Animation
In Hoodwinked, Red Puckett's outfit is a white shirt, a red-hooded cloak, and a blue skirt worn over blue jeans. She eschews the skirt entirely in the sequel.
MK's attire throughout Epic is a skirt over leggings paired with a pink hoodie.
Films — Live-Action
The heroine of Juno wears this on her poster, and a few times throughout the movie. At one point, she takes off the skirt when she goes to see Paulie, which Word Of God says he knows her well enough to give her a hard time about.
In Sky High the GF of the main character wears a flower print skirt over jeans.
In Hidalgo, Jazira wears a long tunic over pants, a very common outfit for Arab women during that time period.
Kick-Ass. Hit Girl wears a pleated schoolgirl skirt over her purple superhero jumpsuit.
Live-Action TV
Gossip Girl: Serena wore outfits like this in the early seasons. In later seasons... not so much.
Victorious: Jade regularly wears black leggings with black skirts. In Tori Goes Platinum, Tori wears a sparkling gold skirt with black jeans and knee high boots as part of her makeover.
Tori and Cat's Boyfriend mention how they hate it.
Sonny With A Chance: Tawni, Zora and Sonny all have worn clothes like this from the start of the show, and for Tawni, it's pretty much every episode.
Averted in Austin & Ally. Ally wears dresses or skirts on their own, often achieving various high grades of Zettai Ryouiki. The few times she wears pants or shorts she doesn't match them with skirts. Trish averts the trope despite using layering of long t-shirts to achieve a similar but not as pronounced effect to what it would be if she were wearing actual skirts as per the trope.
Tosh does this in an episode of Torchwood because she wants to dress up to impress someone, but it's also really cold out.
In Power Rangers Mystic Force, Vida wears long pants under her skirts, and Udonna has a removable skirt... thing.
Mako of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger usually follows this trope. Her most well known outfitnote The one in the OP and ED. is a dress just thrown over a turtleneck and jeans.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy occasionally wore this in the first season. In season two, they got a new costume designer who didn't get the appeal of the look and did away with it.
Eureka: Holly Martin the Adorkable nerd wears this type of clothing.
Game Of Thrones: Daenerys's usual Dothraki outfit has riding leathers with a skirt over it. Her maternity clothes have a larger skirt over her normal outfit. Irri wears a skirt over leggings, as well.
Rocky Blue on Shake It Up wears these sometimes, however most of the time, if she took off the pants, the skirt would be highly inappropriate for any show, let alone a Disney Kid Com.
Degrassi: Maya wore a plaid schoolgirl skirt over black leggings in episode 23, season 12.
Video Games
Gotcha Force: Usagi wears a plaid skirt over her pants.
Natalie wears a tan skirt over black pants (Though, her sprite and official art makes it hard to tell if the skirt isn't actually a waist apron).
A favorite for female player characters; PonyJill (''Another Wonderful Life'', ''DS Cute'') wears a skirt over pants, and Angela (Tree of Tranquility), and Molly (Animal Parade) wear visible shorts under their skirts.
In The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind, you have the option of wearing a skirt over your trousers, regardless of gender. You'll see enemies doing the same.
Chie Satonaka from Persona 4 wears cycling shorts underneath her skirt. She doesn't ride a bike, so much as she needs them to cover up while fighting: she's particularly fond of roundhouse kicks.
The ending of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As Portable: The Gears of Destiny shows that Amita's non-fighting outfit is a Wild West inspired blue dress worn over thick pants tucked into a pair of boots.
Abby in Ctrl+Alt+Del wears a skirt over ripped pants/leggings which was recolored as a skirt over tights after it was discovered she looked exactly like another artist's drawing.
In The Zombie Hunters' extended Flash Back, the youngest Zombie Hunter Katie sometimes sports this look, in contrast to her more utilitarian teammates.
In the Looney Tunes short, Hold the Lion, Please, it was done hilariously. At the near-end of the cartoon, Mrs. Bugs Bunny appears, and after Bugs slinks back into his burrow at the sight of her, she turns to the viewing audience, and says...
Mrs. Bugs Bunny: Eh, WHO wears the pants in this family?
... and immediately lifts up her dress, revealing a pair of MEN'S SLACKS!
Real Life
And was used as a form of rebellion in the times when girls were forced to wear skirts to school.
The Churidar and Salwar Kameez are "default" versions of this trope; they retain the appearance and the practicality of the skirt-over-slacks theme, but are not usually worn without the pants, because the tops have two cuts on either side, going up to the waist. This actually serves two purposes: one, it gives more freedom of movement, and two: it looks pretty stylish.
They're also practical in the Middle Eastern countries where they're primarily worn; skin covering is essential to prevent sunburn, but the outfit also has to be loose to allow air to circulate.
The concept of "bloomers", puffy pants under a skirt, was an attempt to do this in the 19th century. But some still found it indecent.
One early Feminist who tried the style gave it up; according to her every time she gave a speech on women's rights to a male audience they were so busy staring at her ankles they didn't hear a word she said.
Girls in Modern Orthodox Jewish communities often wear skirts over jeans.
This is common among Muslim women who feel (or are forcefullyinstructed) that "modest clothing" necessarily involves wearing long, loose, flowing garments—in public, at least. Such women often wear more fashionable outfits—often including slacks or jeans—under the loose garment, which would be taken off at home or in female-only settings.
Quite apart from any cultural reason, this was a favourite look of Trinny Woodall of What Not to Wear fame... and one of the few that never did creep into the mainstream of the UK for much of the 2000s. T&S got their way about A-line skirts, wedge heels, stretch-sided knee-boots and fitted tshirts. This one, assigned usually to tall or short-legged women never convinced anyone.
