Do folks notice or not?

[Sinned]

All, In the surgery I did give the impression that I was comfortable with wearing a skirt in public, just wanted to wear a skirt when I wanted to and didn't really care what others thought. I certainly wasn't keeping it secret. I had a good conversation with her at the time and I did say that I had a lot of skirts of all colours and which should cover most occasions. As I said I was surprised at the time but I recovered well and reacted naturally. You are right - we wear our skirts when we want to and should expect others to remember and mention it whenever they feel it convenient. We just run the risk that the time and place are not always of our choosing. After all we may be unconventional or unusual but it's not illegal.

[STEVIE]

I may be too sensitive, but I still feel she was wrong.
I accept that I stand out in a crowd as the guy in the skirt and that it get's me remembered by some folks, that I can live with.
However, I would not expect to have the subject of my preferences raised out of context. Especially by someone who I had professional dealings with, no matter who that was.
I see the pharmacist who dispenses my medication regularly, in a "passing" context. She sees me skirted and trousered. We converse, no reference to what I happen to be wearing at any given time, that's acceptance as I understand it.
Steve.

[Departed Member]

I've had a few run ins with noticers the last couple of days going skirted. One was when I was with a group of friends from Uni celebrating the end of classes for this semester and we were in a pub near campus. Some highly drunk guys, and I mean utterly plastered, walked by, and one drunk noticed my maxi khaki skirt and started shouting at the top of his lungs "he's wearing a skirt!" That one bothered me, mostly because of the drunkenness part. No offense intended to anyone that drinks, but I have very little patience inside for the silly antics of drunks, and this one rubbed me the wrong way, though my lack of patience on the inside rarely makes its way to my outside.

Another more neutral or perhaps positive noticing event happened tonight when I wore my black and olive green striped maxi skirt to a church gathering tonight. As most probably know, I'm Mormon, and on Monday evenings we have something called "Family Home Evening," where families spend the evening together doing something fun or single Mormons in the area gather and spend the evening together doing something fun. It was cold out and I didn't feel like wearing tights, so I just wore the maxi with a slip and some argyle socks to keep warm. One of the LDS/Mormon missionaries noticed my skirt and asked "what is it you call those things you wear again?" He was referring to my formal lavalava/sulu he usually see me in, mistaking my maxi skirt for a sulu. I simply told him that this one tonight was just a skirt. He asked if people ever ask me why I'm wearing a skirt, and I told him simply because I find them more comfortable than trousers. He and his missionary companion seemed satisfied with this answer and didn't ask anything more about it. No one else said anything about it tonight either, there being both male and female single Mormons there. People surely noticed but are so used to seeing me wear some kind of a skirt that perhaps they just thought it was a Sulu/Lavalava like the missionary or were afraid to say something. Either way, no mention of the skirt is always a positive in my view as opposed to mentioning it negatively. It did give me courage tho to wear more of my "womens skirts" to other such church gatherings with my fellow Mormons. If I'm gonna be meeting potential friends and romantic mates, I want them to known up front what to expect.

[Charlie]

A man I'd guess was in his 20's knocked on the door. He made out he was unemployed and was selling stuff door-to-door. I'm never sure if this is a scam so said no , I don't want anything.
I was wearing black tights and a denim kilt.
As he was going, he asked if I wore a skirt on a daily basis. I told him it was a kilt, to which he replied 'But you're not Scottish are you?' (I've got a west-country accent). I told him you didn't have to be a Scot to wear a kilt, but he was adamant that you did. Presumably he also thinks you have to be a woman to wear a skirt; wonder if he thinks you have to be a man to wear trousers? Bet he doesn't.
Charlie

[r.m.anderson]

- - -
I was wearing black tights and a denim kilt.
As he was going, he asked if I wore a skirt on a daily basis. I told him it was a kilt, to which he replied 'But you're not Scottish are you?' (I've got a west-country accent). I told him you didn't have to be a Scot to wear a kilt, but he was adamant that you did. Presumably he also thinks you have to be a woman to wear a skirt; wonder if he thinks you have to be a man to wear trousers? Bet he doesn't.
Charlie

Ahem; this bloke is going to make a ton of sales with an class attitude like that!

[crfriend]

I remain rather astonished that nobody at work has said anything at all about my fashion sense. As far as I'm aware, there hasn't even been a whisper. It wasn't even all that gradual of a change, either. I went from "normal" trousers to palazzo pants and thence to outright skirts in the span of about two weeks. But, no commentary at all -- it's other aspects that get attention.

My waistcoats are a perennial favorite of one co-worker who has a seemingly fashion-forward (or is that "backward") fascination with waistcoats, and I have allowed photos to be shot of me in mine, and have provided the link to my supplier with pleasure.

I got quizzed today whilst I was working on a copier about my two watches. I merely stated that as a sysadmin I need to deal in multiple time-zones at once, and other than my native one the other biggie is UTC -- which the other watch is set to. And that, as they say, was that -- I was hoping for a challenge of sorts, to which I would likely have responded with humour, but didn't get one. The fact that I was wearing an ankle-length velveteen skirt apparently didn't register.

The other possibility -- and I dearly hope this isn't the case -- is that rampant PC (Political Correctness) has frightened folks away from questioning anybody who dares to deviate from the supposed norm. If this is the case, I will be truly saddened as I work with some very, very, bright folks; to have them not have the strength of character to question me on something -- anything -- I find very sad indeed, and that makes me worry about the way that culture is going locally.

Have we been so brow-beaten that we cannot ask honest questions of another human being? Even such a simple question as, "What's with the skirts?" To remove the ability to ask such an honest and forthright question is nothing short of criminal. I know that my sheer physical size intimidates many, but whatever happened to the notion of a robust exchange of intellectual ideas?

[Kirbstone]

Carl,
There's no doubt that your stature would in all instances tend to quell spoken adverse opinion. When you wrote that you 'stand entirely humbled' by a few pics I threw together, coming from of all people yourself, I was very surprised...and chuffed, of course.

Had I shown up at work so attired the reaction wouldn't have been confined to a few snide remarks...It would be the talk of the County!, so being the coward that I am I keep my 'dapper dressing' to my strictly leisure time and if I do venture out it certainly wouldn't be down the local shopping mall.

For me, like Gerd M in Denmark my skirted external forays are either across the local moors or down the riverbank, accompanied by my furry 7-Stone Benjy, who makes me at least 6'4" tall if I encounter anyone.

Tom

[crfriend]

There's no doubt that [Carl's] stature would in all instances tend to quell spoken adverse opinion.

The important takeaway from this is that my stature should not "excuse" various behaviours, for if that's the case then we've not come a long way from chimpanzees. I am not a brute by temperament, and vastly prefer decent dialogue to fisticuffs -- if only for the reason that I stand a better chance of besting an adversary in the former than the latter.

When [Carl] wrote that [ I] 'stand entirely humbled' by a few pics I threw together, coming from of all people yourself, I was very surprised...and chuffed, of course.

I looked at some of those shots critically, and they were just sublime. Somehow -- and I can't grasp it forcefully at the moment -- they channeled a 1940s look supremely and elegantly. Elegance is something that now seems lost. I believe I've commented similarly in the past to the effect of saying, "Tom could walk out of the silver screen of a period PI (private investigator) flick and into the real world without hesitation or any reason to disbelieve". Elegance is timeless -- as is style.

Had I shown up at work so attired the reaction wouldn't have been confined to a few snide remarks...It would be the talk of the County!, so being the coward that I am I keep my 'dapper dressing' to my strictly leisure time and if I do venture out it certainly wouldn't be down the local shopping mall.

This is entirely sad. If this is the mentality of your part of the world, then I suppose I should understand MM's insistence a bit better. But, that makes it no less sad.

[phathack]

In the last month I have been to the pub twice in my kilt. I met with a couple of other men that were also wearing kilts, Its an Irish pub.
Other than the waitresses that were wearing skirts as part of their uniform there were no other skirts or kilts in he pub.

I kept count of all the women that I encountered in the last month that were wearing skirts or dresses and that count was 3 in 27 days.

[Kirbstone]

No surprise there, Ph. It's probably not as cold in Grapevine as here, but the womens' depts. in all the stores reflect this trend....all tops & trews, with opaques for the younger ones. You have to search extensively to find a few skirts lurking in a corner somewhere, and these are frequently just ultra-short 'pelmets' to be worn over thick tights.

Nice for you to have a local Irish pub where kilt wearing is usual. Alas, here on the actual Emerald Isle kilts are as rare as hens' teeth! The local pubs only get invaded by kilt wearers when there's a contingent of Scots over for a rugby match. Pity.

Tom

[STEVIE]

On the way to the office this morning I got the most disapproving stare from a fifty something lady. Iwouldn't have been so bad if she wasn't carrying a white cane.
Steve.

[Dottie]

Steve, that made me laugh, I went shopping in the newly opened Range store down at the beach boulevard on Monday, had on a black maxi skirt as it was a wee bit chilly , no one seemed to notice, however when I went in to Asda across the road 2 women on separate occasions asked where I had purchased my skirt from.

[STEVIE]

I had a chortle on this too.
I could have asked if she was claiming "benefit" due to being "visually challenged".
Asdas can be really interesting in a skirt, from nobody gives a damn to the typical "Daily Mail", I am outraged scenario.
That's just life though.
Steve.

[Sinned]

I've not had a problem with our local ASDA. They've not cared at all about my skirt which is as it should be. I've even bought a skirt from there whilst wearing a skirt and the assistant has been chatty as normal.

[Jim]

For non-British folk, ASDA is the British version of Wal*Mart (or as I usually say, Mall*Wart), wholly owned by Mall*Wart.