skirtcafe.org

Nothing to do with Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in.
I decided to give a pair of my loudly coloured socks a debut at the music club yesterday evening. Unfortunately I was upstaged by this month's visiting pro musician, a 50 year old lady in a long black and silver glitter gown - a sun specs job. Maybe next month's artiste will provide a better chance for my tasteless behaviour to win over the usual sea of casual conscious beige trousers and black slacks which abound at these functions.

But perhaps the bright yellow ones next time.



Pete

Pete,
Glitter gowns & sequins &c. are the province of ladies and we blokes have little chance of upstageing that. Your outfit, however, goes a long way towards redressing the imbalance. Matching tie works, too. Touch of Gerd G, who posted a pic. of his red hose under a kilt from the rear view recently.

I think it's great.

T.

Hi Pete

Just a suggestion - try a white shirt instead of
the Khaki/beige shirt to match the white stripe in
the kilt. Should make the stripe stand-out more.

Or - match the shirt to the socks and use a
tie that matches the stripe in the kilt.

(I'm saying 'white' because that's what my monitor
shows as the color of the stripe in your kilt.)

Uncle Al

I'll take your handy suggestions on board Uncle Al, next time I feel like pushing my boundaries of creativity again.

Pete

Red tie and hose looks very good, but your shoes, black brogues would look a whole lot better IMO

That's the problem with posting nice pics, Pete....The clothing police pull you in for the colour of your shirt and the kind of footwear you have on. Some of the stripes in the kilt are off white, so the shirt's absolutely fine.
I agree, however with the footwear crime. Guilty as charged, I would say, but I'm sure you've got plenty of brogues anyway. I bet those loafers are comfortable.

T.

Yes the loafers are intentionally comfortable for playing organ pedals. A hint was in the words 'music club'. Leave them alone, Clothing Police, they're not hurting anyone!

mugman wrote:Yes the loafers are intentionally comfortable for playing organ pedals.

They probably have soles that also won't damage the pedals. This likely isn't a real problem for modern kit, but if you're ever to play a proper classical one I suspect that'd come into play. One doesn't want to wear the varnish off prematurely!

Leave them alone, Clothing Police, they're not hurting anyone!

Indeed.

Leave them alone, Clothing Police, they're not hurting anyone!

Indeed.[/quote]
I did say IMO, I'm far from being a clothing police, but we want to pormote men wearing kilts/skirts and the best way to to it is to “look the part” and not something you have put on with your eyes closed and have no full length mirror in your house <rant over>

RichardA wrote:...we want to pormote men wearing kilts/skirts and the best way to to it is to “look the part” and not something you have put on with your eyes closed and have no full length mirror in your house <rant over>

Agreed, why would we want to look like 99% of the rest of western society, who seem to have got dressed in the dark? Blending in and looking comfortable; silly idea...[/irony]

In all honesty, I did not notice the shoes initially, my eyes were drawn to the socks. Looking again however, I actually like the less formal footwear. I suspect that brogues would add formality to the look as well as being less comfortable. Whether brogues would be a practical choice for playing in or not I will leave to the organists amongst us to debate, but I maintain that the the best way to promote skirted garments on men is to be seen out and about wearing them and looking at ease and comfortable. Dressing too formally will make the look more stilted than the vast majority of folks want to be.

Have fun,


Ian.

For whatever it's worth, I always wear sneakers with my kilt, I like 'em, though they're not traditional I guess. I haven't yet bought my sporran so a lady friend of mine helped me to pick out (in her words) a "masculine looking purse". It's actually a lady's backpack but hopefully soon I'll get a regular sporran. If I had my digital camera on me (which I misplaced, rats) I'd try to include a picture. As a silly aside, after I got my first kilt, I thought the fringed edge was unfinished so I thought it went on the inside, so I tried putting the kilt on the wrong way, with the outside wrap pointing to the left, and I wondered why I could only fasten one buckle. Then I looked up on the internet how to put on a kilt and I realized the fringed edge was supposed to go on the outside (duh) and then I could fasten both buckles. I was just being retarded I guess.

Mugs-n-such wrote:[...] I looked up on the internet how to put on a kilt and I realized the fringed edge was supposed to go on the outside (duh) and then I could fasten both buckles. I was just being retarded I guess.

Nope, not "retarded" in the slightest -- just a bit misinformed. (That reminds me of Rick in Casablanca -- "I came here to take the waters." -- "Casablanca is in the middle of a desert." -- "I was misinformed.")

lol...coincidentally, I just watched the James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace" last night with a friend at his house...dealt with water and I guess you'd call it a desert.

I only have experience of church organs and the pedals are NOT varnished. Real organists use thin slippery leather-soled shoes, so they can easily articulate heel & toe up and down the Diapason bass scale (impressive!). Me, when I'm playing I just do the keyboard manual thing and search around for a matching foot pedal note to plonk my size 11 on to augment particular chords.
I suppose it's easy enough initially to get it wrong with a kilt, but most of them have this through eye next to the external buckle which presupposes that the wrap is the 'right' way round.
Lame excuse, Gary....mislaid your camera! You certainly don't 'mislay' your grey matter when it comes to moving chess pieces!

I have 'Casablanca' in my DVD collection and never tire of that film. For me the best bit is the piano accompaniment to the famous song 'as Time goes by', and A/ Casablanca is a seaside town, B/ Casablanca means white house, and the central feature of all Arab walled gardens is a water feature and pool, so, desert or no, taking to the waters was indeed possible there. Rick's off the cuff remark was a line given Bogart by the scriptwriter.

Rant over!

T.

My pedalling boots are just a personal preference. It's what works best for each player I guess. I have another pair of casual soft soled loafers which are slightly narrower and even more appropriate to my use. I need to feel the pedals through the soles when I land on them to judge my aim, for more confident playing. I never have to look down at the pedals, and this naturally comes from subconsciously knowing where your feet are at any time in relation to the rest of the pedalboard. Having shoes which don't mess up this concentration is helpful.

I wasn't accusing anyone in particular of clothes policing RichardA. Your choices are as pertinent as my own. We come here to hopefully prove that men can now do their own thing utilising skirts and/or kilts without formal accessories if desired either sometimes, or always. I'm with Ian on this. I do have brogues from past years of feeling I had to conform sometimes to a suaver Saville Row way, but I actually hate them. They are strictly for weddings and funerals only.

Pete