I had a maxi dress I loved back in the mid-70s. It had a turquoise bodice and a skirt with a swirly, abstract yellow, green and turquoise print.

Now in 2009 there are maxi dresses

I had maxi dress and skirt. I also had a maxi coat Anybody remember that?

Yep, I remember maxi coats. And maxi vests, too. I remember that they were popular at the very start of the 70s, from like 1970 to '72. I remember girls wearing maxi coats and maxi vests over miniskirts or hot pants with knee-high boots or even knee-high sandals (straps up to the knee). These days, though, you hear people calling any long skirt or dress a maxiskirt, but only very simply cut, a-line skirts with two straight side seams qualified as maxiskirts back when the term was invented (the late 60s); glamorous floor-length ballgowns from the 1950s and the like weren't maxidresses. And maxiskirts weren't just eveningwear; they were mostly somewhat casual daywear, inspired by hippies originally.

I wore a blue and white Maxi dress at my high school graduation (1973), with a pair of white wedge sandals. Most of the girls did.