Skirt Cafe is an on-line community dedicated to exploring, promoting and advocating skirts and kilts as a fashion choice for men, formerly known as men in skirts. We do this in the context of men's fashion freedom --- an expansion of choices beyond those commonly available for men to include kilts, skirts and other garments. We recognize a diversity of styles our members feel comfortable wearing, and do not exclude any potential choices. Continuing dialog on gender is encouraged in the context of fashion freedom for men. See here for more details.
Happy-N-Skirts wrote:I am looking for a wrap skirt. It would be much easier to put on and take off while wearing hiking boots. My wife has on made by The North Face, which is not being offered now. We wear skirts when hiking. I would like a quick skirt to take off and put on. Does anyone have an idea where to buy a wrap skirt?
Similar to what others have said, and I'm perhaps skating around forum rules here, but if you have to wear continence briefs (as I do) much easier to change when necessary. That's a lot of the reason why I wear a kilt/skirt about 99% of the time, usually the only time I wear pants is Sunday morning to church. But even if I didn't have the health problem, I'd wear a nice manly skirt or kilt for any excuse, to be honest. Lucky for me I have an excuse ha ha. A friend of mine has a neuropathy problem similar to mine and he wears kilts but his problem is it's hard for him to don pants. Okay, end of rant I guess.
Happy-N-Skirts wrote:I am looking for a wrap skirt. It would be much easier to put on and take off while wearing hiking boots. My wife has on made by The North Face, which is not being offered now. We wear skirts when hiking. I would like a quick skirt to take off and put on. Does anyone have an idea where to buy a wrap skirt?
It's just a rectangle of fabric about 45 inches wide (selvedge to selvedge), which is a common mill size, and about 78 inches long. They can be sewn into tubes but the ones I saw men wearing in Varanasi were all fastened by wrap-around. They put the sheet behind them, sort of pleat the ends by hand gathering up all the excess, then do a crossover of the gathered material in front at the top, and then rolling the fabric down from the waist until there is a roll keeping the knot (really half a knot) in place. Cellphones and wallets get rolled in too. The whole thing can be done with the fabric folded to half width, resulting in lungi that goes down to knees rather than ankles. Saw lots of men doing heavy work in lungi, and even women doing construction work in sari, so simple un-sewn garments can actually be very practical.
I made my kilts so they were very easy to get on by wrap around too, but a lungi self-sizes as you're putting it on, and with practice is probably the fastest wraparound garment out there. They are only held by friction so constant tightening of the roll can get tiresome if the fabric is too slippery, but cheaper cottons seem to work fine. A well finished selvedge is necessary for it to look right, not one of those hairy fuzzy selvedges.
Mugs-n-such wrote:Similar to what others have said, and I'm perhaps skating around forum rules here, but if you have to wear continence briefs (as I do) much easier to change when necessary. That's a lot of the reason why I wear a kilt/skirt about 99% of the time, usually the only time I wear pants is Sunday morning to church. But even if I didn't have the health problem, I'd wear a nice manly skirt or kilt for any excuse, to be honest. Lucky for me I have an excuse ha ha. A friend of mine has a neuropathy problem similar to mine and he wears kilts but his problem is it's hard for him to don pants. Okay, end of rant I guess.
I can say that the same advantage occurs even when one's challenges are temporary...as in norovirus...
Daryl wrote:The talk of overhead dressing reminded me of another superpower: the power to don your underwear as the last item of clothing you put on while dressing and remove it as the first item when undressing. Not sure what this superpower is actually good for, but we've all used it many times, I'll wager.
I have partly used that on a hot day when I had no underwear around home and then decided to go into to town.
I always find that staff give me funny looks when all I bring to the checkout register is the packaging.
Jim wrote:The underwear point reminds me of swimwear. One can put one's swimsuit on in public then take off the skirt. When done, one can put the skirt on, then take the swimsuit off, all without showing things that someone might take offense at. There's a place I go fishing and swimming with a bike path going by. Most of the time no one else is around, but someone can quickly come up on you at any time. I use this technique regularly.
Me too, when I get to a beach, which is not often anymore. I call it the "built-in change room".
denimini wrote:...
I haven't done it but I have seen it on youtube; changing skirts in public.
Dead easy! I often wear a 'practical' denim skirt to a dance, then change into something lighter and more 'dancey' at the side of the dance floor in full view of anyone who happens to look.
Pull the new skirt up over the outside of the old one, making sure all the old one goes inside it. Just before you reach waistband level, undo the waistband catch/button/zip of the old skirt, hold the new skirt up by its waistband and shimmy about a bit, so that the old skirt starts to work its way down off the hips. Fasten the new skirt and let the old skirt fall on the floor - step out of it and pick it up.
Job done.
This, indeed. It's also possible to change between trousers and a skirt - either way - without undesirable exposure. Whereas trousers to trousers is not possible.
Happy-N-Skirts wrote:I am looking for a wrap skirt. It would be much easier to put on and take off while wearing hiking boots. My wife has on made by The North Face, which is not being offered now. We wear skirts when hiking. I would like a quick skirt to take off and put on. Does anyone have an idea where to buy a wrap skirt?
It's just a rectangle of fabric about 45 inches wide (selvedge to selvedge), which is a common mill size, and about 78 inches long. They can be sewn into tubes but the ones I saw men wearing in Varanasi were all fastened by wrap-around. They put the sheet behind them, sort of pleat the ends by hand gathering up all the excess, then do a crossover of the gathered material in front at the top, and then rolling the fabric down from the waist until there is a roll keeping the knot (really half a knot) in place. Cellphones and wallets get rolled in too. The whole thing can be done with the fabric folded to half width, resulting in lungi that goes down to knees rather than ankles. Saw lots of men doing heavy work in lungi, and even women doing construction work in sari, so simple un-sewn garments can actually be very practical.
I made my kilts so they were very easy to get on by wrap around too, but a lungi self-sizes as you're putting it on, and with practice is probably the fastest wraparound garment out there. They are only held by friction so constant tightening of the roll can get tiresome if the fabric is too slippery, but cheaper cottons seem to work fine. A well finished selvedge is necessary for it to look right, not one of those hairy fuzzy selvedges.
The Filipino version of that garment, called malong, is always sewn into a tube:
I have several of them and aside from wearing them as a skirt I use them as a 'changing room' like as mentioned earlier in this thread.
neiljerram wrote: Whereas trousers to trousers is not possible.
I am sure I can recall Mr. Bean doing something like that on a beach.
And did he achieve it with his usual elegance and panache? (I would assume not, as the point of Mr Bean is that even the simplest thing goes wrong, and this is not a simple thing!)
neiljerram wrote: Whereas trousers to trousers is not possible.
I am sure I can recall Mr. Bean doing something like that on a beach.
And did he achieve it with his usual elegance and panache? (I would assume not, as the point of Mr Bean is that even the simplest thing goes wrong, and this is not a simple thing!)
Another superpower related to "surface": you can eat a sandwich while driving, the skirt catches all the crumbs, and when you exit the car the crumbs naturally get dumped outside.
When I heard about skirting, I jumped in with both feet!
Mugs-n-such wrote:Similar to what others have said, and I'm perhaps skating around forum rules here, but if you have to wear continence briefs (as I do) much easier to change when necessary. That's a lot of the reason why I wear a kilt/skirt about 99% of the time, usually the only time I wear pants is Sunday morning to church. But even if I didn't have the health problem, I'd wear a nice manly skirt or kilt for any excuse, to be honest. Lucky for me I have an excuse ha ha. A friend of mine has a neuropathy problem similar to mine and he wears kilts but his problem is it's hard for him to don pants. Okay, end of rant I guess.
I can say that the same advantage occurs even when one's challenges are temporary...as in norovirus...