Egads!

[sapphire]

Went to the local Wal-Mart this morning to get paper towels.

Since Carl had asked about skirtss, I went to check out the ladies section. In th epast we've actually been able to get some nice skirts at reasonable prices.

Egads! There was one atrocious style of skirt. One! Two styles of dresses. I did manage to get a nice lightweight summer dress.

But geez louise! I never really expected a ladies department with virtually no skirted garments. Maybe I'll have to start a skirts for ladies movement.

[crfriend]

Maybe I'll have to start a skirts for ladies movement.

Well, you'll have this lad's full support!

As an aside, the dress she picked up looks darned good on her. From the looks of it, it's got some Greek influence in it with the way it's styled and cut.

I, on the other hand, am very glad I was wearing lightweight stuff that doesn't care if it gets wet. I just had to go put the chickens into their coop in one heck of a thunderstorm. At least it was Sapphire's car that got wet inside -- mine's busted again having dropped all his coolant on Route 9 this afternoon. {GRRRRR}

[Gregg1100]

It seems that a lot of ladies clothes shops have fewer skirts on sale these days-just racks of pants, a shame. My wife does not possess any trousers- hates them, -always worn a skirt or dress for all the nearly 42 years we have been married, and a few years before that, lol.

[DALederle]

It's one of the problems faced by men who want to wear skirts or skirted garments. These are going away, and soon there might only be pants to be had.
Not just pants but Blue Jeans!
I know, this is my pet peeve. But it seems to be coming true.
I saw this trend back in the 1970s, that more and more women were wearing slack or pants. Then came the love of blue jeans all the time, with some people wearing "jeans" with suitcoats as if they were now "dress" attire. And that is a look that's still being pushed by celebraties all the time.
I don't understand it myself.
I can see the need, in the winter, to cover up. But with warm weather or mild climates??????????????????
Sapphire:
Is there a problem with wearing skirts or dresses that MIS-MIK don't understand?
Please tell us if there is.
Is it men's attitudes that is to blame?
I'd sure like to find ways to bring skirts, kilts, dresses, sarongs and caftans back into the mainstream of what people wear.

Dennis A. Lederle
Live Long and Perspire!

[Since1982]

Maybe I'll have to start a skirts for ladies movement.

LOL

[sapphire]

Dennis,
There are problems with wearing skirts and to my mind, they are: modesty, cleanliness and the general loss of formality in our culture.

The modesty part involves making sure no one sees up.

Cleanlliness: well, most of us have some messy chores that we have to do. Aprons were invented to help protect dresses from the various splatters of housework. I garden sitting down in the dirt because my lower joints are shot. Wouldn't do gardening in a skirted garment. The same goes for cleaning the bathroom, scrubbing floors, etc.

As you noted in your remarks about blue jeans, we are becoming more casual in our attire and less formal. Although there were times in high school when I wanted to wear trousers but wasn't allowed to, I always made sure that I made a new dress for holidays and special occassions.

But with that loss of formality comes choices we didn't always have. I can choose between skirts and trousers and as the MIS-MIK community is finding out those choices are opening up for men. It took a long time and a lot of pioneering for women to get their choice of clothing options and the MIS-MIK community is blazing the trail for men to have the same options open to them.

As for Wal-Mart, the company changed designers/suppliers a few years back and have acknowledged that it was a mistake. Before the change in suppliers, one could actually find some nice inexpensive skirts and dresses.

The key is inexpensive. I can always find skirts and dresses at Dress Barn or Coldwater Creek, to give a couple of examples. Both chains have very nice clothing, but that clothing costs more. If a nice outfit costs $150-$300+ I'm loathe to get it dirty. However I'm less uptight about getting the cute $20 Wal-Mart dress dirty.

[JRMILLER]

Skirts are alive and well in central Ohio (Columbus). We visited Whole Foods for the wine tasting tonight and there was a large variety of skirts on display. I generally wear a sarong or a kilt -- tonight it was a kilt. Glad to see the skirts out and walking about, made my heart sing!

[N0HEQ]

Skirts & dresses are indeed getting harder to find & more expensive. I suspected this trend 20 years when I started buying from clearance racks. The days of the quality skirt for three dollars are past. It is possible that some younger women won't even wear a skirt or a dress. The typical female garment fit is perfect for a man if proper attention is paid to size. Some female garments are so masculine that it was no wonder that they were a hard sell to women. I own so many skirts & dresses that I'm set for life. Style comes & goes but the fundamentals of denim miniskirts & cargo skirts won't be changing any time soon. So as long as the wearing of a skirt or dress isn't declared to be illegal by some law I will continue to have a closet free from trousers & shorts. Yes, your clothing choice is affected by the weather, the task & the people around you. There is certainly a time & place for skirts & dresses as I have found.

[tiberius2209]

I've just spent a week in Glasgow, staying at a City Centre hotel, and had been casually observing the clientele in relation to what they were wearing. It saddens me to say that I saw very few skirts being worn by women, and none by men - not a kilt (or any other style) in sight! The hotel was accommodating quite a mixture of 'cultures': French, German, Polish, Indian/Asian and Dutch, as well as some English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish. I only wished I'd taken one of my kilts!

Breakfast this morning was full of a contingent of French tourists (about a coach-ful) and 75% of them were women. Only one was skirted, and she looked about 80 - 90 years old!!!

I adore seeing women dressing in such a way that accentuates their feminine curves and beauty, like they used to on a daily basis, but it seems this is reserved only for special occasions now. Skirted men can also look fantastic, but it requires very careful combinations of complimentary attire to pull it off. I've seen a few pictures of men in skirts (all over the internet, in magazines, etc.) and quite a few are bordering on them trying to achieve a 'feminine' look. Don't get me wrong, I've not got a problem with that, but it's those images that stick in peoples' minds and has the danger of making things much harder for a skirted male, who wants to maintain his masculinity, to be taken seriously? (That's just my personal opinion and I know not everyone will agree)

[mugman]

If people are confused by my skirt wearing I can understand that. An attempted masculine look isn't always going to be a sure way to blend in easily in any situation without someone still thinking you're gay. You can't change the way the world spins merrily along overnight. I don't let that worry me now. If I was gay it probably wouldn't worry me if someone thought I was straight, so I guess it works both ways.
If I was seeking to be taken seriously by anyone who hasn't got to know me well enough over the years, I'm positive wearing skirts is likely to confound the success rate of making a new friend as quickly as when I was dressed conventionally. I'm afraid people have to now be as openminded as me to earn my friendship, and a good few have indeed accepted my skirting choices without deep questioning. If they show obvious signs of unease about it they will undoubtedly remain mere acquaintances, but what they might think of my attire is quite immaterial nowadays. It might sound snobbish , but personal contentment is becoming more important to me now than being able to add loads of new so called 'friends' to my Christmas card list every year.
Even a Sportkilt can get odd looks from some people. I wore one recently to a local keyboard club coffee morning attended by about 30 club members, and heaven knows what some made of it, as being of quite light material it can hang and look like a skirt to the uneducated. But as I am a fairly reasonable keyboard player, and entertained them for an hour duetting with another player during the morning, I'm sure I'm going to continue to be loved for what I can do, not what I choose to wear. They have asked me to be part again of a two hour concert in October with two other players. This will probably, as usual, be a kilted occasion for me. But by then perhaps the skirts will have become more my image. Who knows. They are all over sixty, so set ways of dressing are present - usually the 'retired' casual look of sharply greased light coloured slacks, socks, sandals and blazer. And that's just the women!
Pete
I said 'greased' by mistake, but somehow I like that thought, so I left it

[Kirbstone]

Yes, The guy who invented blue jeans has a lot to answer for, but is probably laughing all the way to the bank.

We've just returned from a three-day coach trip to Ireland's 'Alaska'......Donegal. Geolocically and climatically very like Scotland.

Rs Glenveigh Park, Donegal.jpg

Rs Dunveigh Castle Donegal.jpg

I remember noting on one day that among a group gathered round an interesting sculpture the only skirted lady was my dear wife.
However, on getting to an hotel yesterday afternoon for tea on the way home we hit on a very big wedding where there were well over a hundred beautifully attired mostly young people of the female perswasion all milling about in an eyewatering selection of dresses. Generally the younger the wearer the more leg was on display. So, at least for weddings the trousers are left behind at home and real finery is the order of the day. Very easy on the eye, I must say.

As for the 'lads', well, not a MUG in sight, alas.

Tom K.

[tiberius2209]

... but personal contentment is becoming more important to me now than being able to add loads of new so called 'friends' to my Christmas card list every year.

... I'm sure I'm going to continue to be loved for what I can do, not what I choose to wear.

Thank you for giving us your perspective mugman, it's an argument that I've heard quite a lot. I'm very interested in other peoples' views and it helps me to make decisions of my own. There was a saying that if you were in London you wouldn't get a second look no matter what you chose to wear, however outlandish it seemed. I am noticing that this is no longer restricted to London, probably because the younger generation is becoming more tolerant of peoples' talents rather than appearance, which is the point you made.

Going a bit off-subject now (and returning to sapphire's original point of this thread), the Walmart equivalent in the UK is 'Asda' (which happens to be owned by Walmart). My wife and I shop there every week and, despite there being a wide selection of jeans and trousers, they do stock a reasonably good range of relatively good quality dresses and skirts at reasonable prices. Don't know if it's a UK thing or not?

What appears in the shops is of course dictated by the 'fashion gurus' of the world and what they say is 'in season' - it's funny how most people, men and women alike, seemed to default to the jeans and t-shirt combination. Comfort-wear

[mugman]

What I do find irritating is that sometimes I see a skirt that's ideal, but none left in my size, and that's it. They don't replenish the rack. I must be an average woman's size at UK16, so they're the first to disappear.
Attractive photos, Tom .

Pete