>>51757518The first playable canon female MC was Kris and she wore bike pants, Leaf is just a Red female MC skin as she has no personality and was a forced addition since with May from Gen 3 onward female MCs were a new standard feature. May also didn't wear a skirt. The first female MC with a skirt was Dawn in DP, her Platinum outfit was a little confusing with that coat and looked like she had nothing below.
Then Hilda and Rosa shorts and leotards, finally Serena with a proper fashionable skirt and direct upgrade of Leaf's design, also the first blonde. Thw rest you know, shorts and skirts with Selene and Gloria and the awful androids from Gen 9.
So no, skirts were never a tradition and Leaf was never iconic or memorable. Especially with that fucked up outfit and not coordinated color choices.
Also, among popular girls there are more pokegirls that don't wear a skirt than those that wear one, not saying those that wear a skirt are not popular, just that there is an equal if not wider representation by those that don't wear one. I think skirts are more common among NPC trainer classes.