Sightings "in the wild"

[beachlion]

Café is used in French also for the place one drinks his coffee. More often Bar/Tabac is used or Bistro(t), but such mostly when one can have lunch/diner there also. Bistrot is a small Bistro.

And just to wander even further afield, bistro is not French but is a Russian word meaning 'quickly'. It's where you go when you need refreshment in a hurry....

To bring this subject a little back on track, the heritage of the bistro is not that clear. The Russian connection seems to be not that evident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bistro

[geron]

To bring this subject a little back on track, the heritage of the bistro is not that clear. The Russian connection seems to be not that evident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bistro

Doncha just love folk etymologies! However, I suspect that the (silent) t sometimes suffixed may be there just to make the word look more French.

[STEVIE]

is one not meant to be wearing a skirt before entering such places?
Steve.

[alexthebird]

I write a blog called Kilt in the Kitchen and a couple of years ago I wrote about the uniqueness of French dining establishments. http://www.kiltinthekitchen.com/2017/08 ... -in-a-name

[Gusto10]

Café is used in French also for the place one drinks his coffee. More often Bar/Tabac is used or Bistro(t), but such mostly when one can have lunch/diner there also. Bistrot is a small Bistro.

And just to wander even further afield, bistro is not French but is a Russian word meaning 'quickly'. It's where you go when you need refreshment in a hurry....

can't refresh be considered also in getting something to drink after exhaustive activities, some like - in Russia - Wodka?
But maybe the same word exists in various languages, but that the meaning differs. An example, "proper" in English is mostly used as "correct" (e.g. the proper thing to do = the correct thing to do), in Flemish & French it means "clean".

[Gusto10]

is one not meant to be wearing a skirt before entering such places?
Steve.

Bistro's are gender fluid

[shadowfax]

Spotted in an East of England city three days ago - a man in a kilt that wasn't quite a standard Scottish kilt. It was a skirt.
It was in the coffee cafe of a big supermarket and, at leisure with my latte, seated (wearing jeans I'm sorry to say, dudes), I was at leisure to observe two things:
1. The fashion style and here's a thing - the man's legs were hairless. Also he was wearing not court shoes exactly, but a bit of a heel and shoes that veered more towards the feminine than the masculine. No tights as far as I could see but he may have had on a light denier and my eyes aren't so great so that's quite possible.
2. I was at leisure, equally importantly to watch the observations of others. This slice of society was mostly made up of standard middle class rather affluent family groups: Young girls, slightly older girls. Boys and young men and their older parental or guardian generation. All as far as I could see were dressed conventionally.
Did they look and stare? Yes they did actually a bit, but not in a hostile way. More of a - oh well let's acknowledge diversity and a bloke in a skirt? What's to get too fussed about. Probably in touch with his feminine side.
Just to finally add that the skirt had a bit of poof to it - and it did look like he may have had on some kind of underskirt or petticoat.
All in all a most interesting interlude and I now feel like drumming up the balls to join him and wear my own favourite fitted A-line skirt.

Reading this post made me think.
When shopping at the supermarket skirted, I usually shop reasonably quickly then soon go on my way.

Recently, feeling brave, I made a point of going for a coffee in the Costa Coffee shop in the supermarket first before walking around the store to do my shopping.

There was a queue for the till and then again as they made the drink.
I took the drink to a table and sat and relaxed. I think that I got one odd look from another customer of the cafe.

I was dressed in an A-Line skirt (above the knee), nearly black, 20 denier, medium support tights, black patent, Mary Jane heels and a black cross body bag. Black long-sleeved polo shirt.

[FranTastic444]

Nice blog, Alexthebird.

I just dipped into the site and read a few posts (including Borough Market and UK vs US). As a Brit who has spent a good portion of his life living outside of London in a place maybe not too dissimilar from Leeds, but has also worked in many of the UK's cities (including a short stint living in London - near Borough Market, as it happens), I find your writing interesting.

[hillaryskirt]

Reading this post made me think.
When shopping at the supermarket skirted, I usually shop reasonably quickly then soon go on my way.

Recently, feeling brave, I made a point of going for a coffee in the Costa Coffee shop in the supermarket first before walking around the store to do my shopping.

There was a queue for the till and then again as they made the drink.
I took the drink to a table and sat and relaxed. I think that I got one odd look from another customer of the cafe.

I was dressed in an A-Line skirt (above the knee), nearly black, 20 denier, medium support tights, black patent, Mary Jane heels and a black cross body bag. Black long-sleeved polo shirt.

Hi Shadowfax,
Thanks you for this interesting contirbution to my newly instigated 'skirts in the cafe extensions to UK supermarkets' theme! My experience/sighting was in a Costa too, at a major Tesco in the East of England.
Your clothes/style sounds nice although personally I go for 'below the knee'.
Is 20 denier very light? I think I go more for 30-40 at this time of year!

[shadowfax]

<SNIP>
I was dressed in an A-Line skirt (above the knee), nearly black, 20 denier, medium support tights, black patent, Mary Jane heels and a black cross body bag. Black long-sleeved polo shirt.

Hi Shadowfax,
Thanks you for this interesting contribution to my newly instigated 'skirts in the cafe extensions to UK supermarkets' theme! My experience/sighting was in a Costa too, at a major Tesco in the East of England.
Your clothes/style sounds nice although personally I go for 'below the knee'.
Is 20 denier very light? I think I go more for 30-40 at this time of year!

Thanks for the compliment.

20 denier is quite sheer but not the sheerest. I believe that at that 20 denier level, an American might still call them pantyhose?
I find the level of warmth is just sufficient to walk from my car and into the supermarket in winter temperatures of around 5 degrees C.
If I was walking any distance, 1/2 a mile say, in those temperatures then I would pull a pair of semi-opaque tights (40-50 denier?) for extra warmth, over the top of the 20 denier, medium support tights.

Here is a link to the tights page on Marks & Spencer's web site. Near the top of the page there is a drop-down filter to select the Denier of tights to display. There are also links to the different types of tights.
I hope that you find this helpful.

[hillaryskirt]

Thanks Shadowfax, that was really useful.

[kingfish]

Over the weekend, I visited the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel in Boston and attended the fan run science fiction convention called "Arisia".

It was fantastic.

I did sight countless kilted gentlemen (both traditional and modern styles), any number of cosplayers, and counted at least a half dozen men in skirts, including a couple of costume player types.
This guy did dresses all weekend. Friday night, he had on a dress that showed geometric principles. In years past, I've seen him in

DinosaurDress.jpg

This one was a costume player doing his thing, and rocked one of the shortest miniskirts I'd seen all weekend

cosplay.jpg

This one was the most epic. He was about as tall as Carl, and the vest, hat and skirt were made from neckties!

TieOutfit.jpg

And lastly, I'd seen this gent ahead of me as I checked out of the hotel this morning. He also did the entire convention skirted, with his wife totally supportive of it.

SundayCheckout.jpg

There were several others sporting the t-shirt and broomstick skirt look.

[Happy-N-Skirts]

I was at the dry cleaner yesterday picking up some clothes. The young lady at the front counter noticed my skirt, smiled, and said, "it looks nice." I rarely get noticed and people very rarely say anything. I told her how important her comment was and how she helped to make my day. I thought to return her compliment and told her that her hair was very shiny and beautiful. Her hair was the most attractive thing about her. She had an even bigger smile and thanked me.

[Hope]

So easy to give each other happiness

[skirtingtoday]

I was recently in Tenerife for some winter sun and a few rounds of golf. I saw a few fellows as below.
1 He was wearing a mid-shin wedding dress with a veil (probably on his stag do) sipping pints with his male friends.
2 The following night, a group of blokes passed us and one was wearing a dark green, just above knee-length skirt and knee-length red and white sox.