Skirt suits

[Peter v]

These designs work for me.

One other thing I was thinking; I'm looking to buy a pinstripe kilt suit. It's a three piece suit, with matching waistcoat. One thing I wanted to to was move away from the kilt shoes - for example, winter wear. I currently have a friend (who sells, or is about to sell, womens shoes online) who is looking out for mens knee high boots that would compliment a kilt. I'm thinking something like riding boots - very masculine, as befits the sturdiness of a kilt, yet at the same time, finely tailored, as befits a contemporary black/pinstripe kilt.

See attached for an image of the suit. It's not cheap, but my goodness; it looks good to my eyes.

http://www.21stcenturykilts.co.uk/discountedpackage.htm

Well, there we have it, a skirted suit. Visually it is hard to tell from the images if they are kilts, so in your mind replace them with any other straight skirt, and wella! There you have instant skirted suits.

i think the only real things keeping skirted suits from the male public is price, ( but for executives no problem, they earn enough, and probably spend bags of money on men's suits any way) and teh very fact that I think that for men's skirted suits to get off the ground, no matter what type of suit, that there be some tailor made, to fit the individual perfectly, as suits should, and then be worn at functions which get some publicity. With some made for different body types, representative of the type of men who would generally be wearing suits, thus also older men who may also be getting somewhat heavier with age. Not only perfect men. As when any suit is worn, that does not fit right, male of female, it doesn't look right and detracts from the whole concept.

[crfriend]

Just love the LOOK. Note: "The look" of a skirt and jacket combi. Whether male or female body is in it. The shown suit would look good on both men and women [...]

That's a good look; that's a damned good look, but presented as shown it would not (in my opinion) work on the male frame. You may ask, "Why"?, and I'll try to present my opinion on the matter forthwith.

Interestingly, the skirt is not the problem -- it's the jacket. The outfit shown in the image is clearly a woman's outfit, and it's because of the cut of the "top". Firstly, the cut of the jacket is specifically designed to show off the wearer's curves -- curves that guys just don't have, furthermore, the sleeves are too short for a classic men's jacket. Too, how many blokes don't wear anything under their jackets? (I'd posit not a lot.)

Touching back on the skirt for a moment, that particular article looks remarkably functional -- for either sex. It drapes well, the waist/hip ratio on the model may well approximate the male physique, and the length is workable for either sex. This looks like something that we can "run with:".

In short, this might be an interesting avenue to explore when it comes to "professional garb". As a guy, I'd ditch the stiletto heels, but that's my personal opinion. As goes personal opinion, I'd be as happy as a pig in a poke if I could find good men's shoes with more than a 1/2" heel....

[sapphire]

Back in the day when I was a sewing fool, I made a number of skirted suits for myself. My earliest recollection of suit making was in the 6th grade. The suit was a dark blue fabric with a straight faux wrap skirt with a back kick pleat and a simple lined jacked. I was feeling rather fancy at the time, because my Dad was taking me into New York City, and trimmed the jacket and skit with gold braid and black gros grain ribbon in a vertical stripe from shoulder to hem of the jacket and from the waist of the skirt to the hem of the skirt.

In the 8th grade suits I was forced to take a sewing class, and found it to be a waste of time because it didn't teach me anything new. We were supposed to make an A-line skirt and had 6 weeks to do it. So in protest, I made two skirted suits, each with an A-line skirt and a simply tailored jacket. The jackets were lined and had front patch pockets The skirts also had pockets. One was turquoise and the other was screaming loud lime green.

I don't remember what the fabric was, but it was something inexpensive. I didn't have much of an allowance and bought whatever was cheap that appealed to me at the local WT Grant store.

In 10th grade I made a similar suit out of quilted material that was a floral design on a medium blue background. It was a conservatively cut suit but the material was so unusual that my parents were called in to discuss their "strange" child.

When I went into the workforce, I decided to make several 3 piece business suits and modeled them after men's tailoring. I made the suits out of lightweight wool, men's suit material. I made them with straight skirts with back kick pleats, A-line skirts, knife pleated skirts, box pleated skirts, A-line with front inverted pleat.

All of the styles would work well for a man. The skirts had simple, clean lines and the overall look was professional.

The problem was in learning to do traditional menswear tailoring. Those suit jackets and waistcoats that you guys have involve a LOT of work and have a lot of detail! There's a lot of "stuff" going on between the outside of the jacket and the lining. Women's jackets don't have that amount of "stuff" going on. A well made men's jacket has a thin layer of padding in front that has to be hand stiched in a certain way to make it drape properly, interfacing needs to be applied, shoulder pads have to be placed, the underside of the collar is felt and has to be hand stitched properly. A quality jacket will have bound button holes instead of machine stitched buttonholes. Outside and inside pockets are made in a manner similar to bound button holes. Then, there is the button detail on the sleeves. The waistcoat doesn't have as much detail as the jacket but one still has to consider how the pockets are made and that the waistcoat needs to be lined.

Of course, I had to modify all that to fit my "topography".

On the other hand, I had two skirted suits made for me (by a men's tailor) when I did a project in Hong Kong. The suits were reasonably priced and well made.

The point is that skirted suits ARE possible and CAN work for men and look professional. Just choose a style of skirt that hangs fairly straight in line with the jacket.

Also consider that the jacket and skirt do not necessarily have to be of the same fabric. Men have been pairing trousers and blazers for years. You can achieve that look with a skirt that hangs well in the line of the jacket with a coordinating blazer/jacket.

[Neil]

Just love the LOOK. Note: "The look" of a skirt and jacket combi. Whether male or female body is in it. The shown suit would look good on both men and women [...]

That's a good look; that's a damned good look, but presented as shown it would not (in my opinion) work on the male frame. You may ask, "Why"?, and I'll try to present my opinion on the matter forthwith.

Interestingly, the skirt is not the problem -- it's the jacket. The outfit shown in the image is clearly a woman's outfit, and it's because of the cut of the "top". Firstly, the cut of the jacket is specifically designed to show off the wearer's curves -- curves that guys just don't have, furthermore, the sleeves are too short for a classic men's jacket. Too, how many blokes don't wear anything under their jackets? (I'd posit not a lot.)
Touching back on the skirt for a moment, that particular article looks remarkably functional -- for either sex. It drapes well, the waist/hip ratio on the model may well approximate the male physique, and the length is workable for either sex. This looks like something that we can "run with:".

In short, this might be an interesting avenue to explore when it comes to "professional garb". As a guy, I'd ditch the stiletto heels, but that's my personal opinion. As goes personal opinion, I'd be as happy as a pig in a poke if I could find good men's shoes with more than a 1/2" heel....

That's a good point on the overall cut of the jacket. A man's jacket will of necessity have more severe angles, because we're not as curvy. One thing of note: because the jacket would be straighter, that would introduce an incongruity of sorts with the skirt as it shows in the picture, in a way that makes the softer silhouette appear less suited to a male form in my eyes. Then again, I'd ratchet up the heel height a bit from the model's shoe.

On the second bolded point, we're talking about wearing a skirt as part of a suit, which despite our collective intentions and predelictions, we have to acknowledge is outside the mainstream as it is. One can make an argument either way ("a skirt is already beyond the norm, so why conform to the male convention of a shirt and tie under the jacket?" or "a skirt is already beyond the norm, so why take the outfit that much further beyond the norm?" are equally valid positions), but the fact that it's just not done, standing alone, really doesn't mean much here, I don't think.

[SkirtedViking]

I think that tailored jackets look good on an athtelic male. Look at a french renaissance fahion, short tailored jackets should be back for men, not all of us(males) have same bodies(and respectedly curves) as the stereotipe insists.

[Peter v]

You all have a point as regards the jacket. I didn't want to get into details about jackets, but... That is personal detail. The skirted suit concept is still a good one. On some men depending on their body build, sshape, size, and stature, thhe suit woul d or would not look good, as is the same with any clothing. The suggestion made that the skirt suit for men is aldready out of the regular, gives us again the opportunity to do something all together different, IF we please. We CAN adhere to perhaps a standard tailored jacket or waist coat, worn with shirt, tie etc, or opt for a whole new OWN concept. That being something along the lines of what women wear. We are the decision makers. We have decided to wear what other men don't. We can chose our own styles, our own new creations. That is the great but very challenging thing about the fashion freedom which all men have, but the select few actually make use of, or can afford....
But there are enough women with suits which you would think have been permanently "leant" from the woman's husbands wardrobe. Compleet with shirts with collars and ties.

So the example above, I would say is a nice example of a somewhat "relaxed" yet formal office "dress", (clothing), as it has no shirt collar or tie. A neat quality T shirt could suffice nicely. Remember, WE are the ones on set, We are the ones who show the world what WE want to wear. If only everything was not so dam.ed expensive. That with regards to getting a suit made tailored for your personal body size, as apposed to haveing the luck to find matching jacket and skirts in your size. Remember, suits must fit perfectly if they are to look good.
,

[tooslowprius]

Talking about skirt suits for men. I decied to try to pair a womens skirt from a suit with some of my mens dress shirts and here is just one look I have came up with.

2743944654_f535a22594.jpg

That is a 29" black skirt with a tan(nude) color shirt. I plan on trying to pair it with some of my other dress shirts to see how that skirt looks. The thing that we need to keep in mind if you are trying to make a skirt go with a mans suit jacket is to keep it simple. What i mean by this is that if you start getting into things that are flaired at the bottom, or too long, or too flowie they will start to look to fem if that makes seens. I have found in my adventures that if you try to keep the skirt somewhat manly looking that most people wont even give it a second thought. So if you are trying to come up with ideas for a suit with a skirt for men then you need to try to keep it as simple as possible and (I really hate to say this ) boring as possible. Than you can get the idea to work. I have gotten mixed comments on this skirt from verious people here. I did pair it with the women's jacket just to see how it would look and didn't really care for the look on me.