Effectively, a Boy's Dress

[Stu]

I spent the day at the beach with daughter and family. My grandson, age 6, played in the lake and on the beach and then we packed to come home. My daughter pulled out what was essentially a long-sleeved child's blue and white dress, pulled it over his head and he wore it home. She has taken him out again in the same garment. Nobody batted an eyelid - why? Because the dress was made of a towelling fabric and therefore it is unisex. Apparently. Even though it wasn't called a dress, it absolutely was exactly that. Had it been made from any other fabric, it would have been considered to be an exclusively female garment, but somehow towelling takes it OK for a boy.

How is that rational?

[Mouse]

How is that rational?

It is not.
An Arab man wears a long white dress. The man at the front of the church wears a long thick dress with highly coloured embroidery. The judge wears a long black dress. The suited man wears a long dress with buttons down the front to keep the rain off his suit. The man going to pray on a Friday wears a long dress.
Many men on the streets of London wear dresses. However, if you informed them of this point, they would get upset, telling you the special name that their dress is called or just punching you!

[STEVIE]

When were humans ever "rational"?
Down that road lies madness!
Lets face it a tee-shirt that is long enough to cover the unmentionables is a dress by any other name too.
Steve.

[JohnH]

As you all know I wear dresses almost all the time such as going to church. One time my priest [Episcopal (Anglican)] joked about wearing a dress while wearing a cassock.

John

[timemeddler]

if only it was.

[STEVIE]

Human Logic

One time my priest [Episcopal (Anglican)] joked about wearing a dress while wearing a cassock.

they would get upset, telling you the special name that their dress is called or just punching you!

Twisted logic or true words spoken in jest?

if only it was.

Then it wouldn't be human!
Steve.

[FLbreezy]

Probably one of the reasons I gravitated towards nudism when I was younger. The rules and semantics and connotations of clothing were just too complicated and illogical for me. Now I mostly just wear what I like and is comfortable, screw the rest of that stuff...most of the time anyway.

[Grok]

Another exception would be a bath robe.

I have wondered if robe like garments might be the next thing to gain traction.

[Stu]

I recall walking through a district of Rome some years ago and seeing a group of schoolchildren aged around 6 or 7 led by a couple of teachers. The kids, whom I assumed were all girls even though some had very short hair, were wearing what looked like uniform dresses with bare legs and white socks. I subsequently discovered that similar garments in Italy are often worn by boys, so maybe some were indeed boys. The garments are called "grembuile" and, while considered unisex, they fasten the girls' way - i.e. left over right.

[Grok]

The uniform looks like a sort of shirt-dress.

[Bertino56]

Look on Google Images for "grembiule scuola".
The translation is apron, smock, coverall, etc.
It's a garment to protect your front from whatever you're doing. (Cooking, for example. Or finger-painting.)
Most of the illustrations are primary-school children. There's no differentiation for gender.

[Bertino56]

Case in point: https://www.italiantrendy.it/grembiule- ... a-11-anni/

[FLbreezy]

When I was in grade school (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) on days where we had arts and crafts that involved paint we all wore a "smock" to protect our clothes which was kind of dress-like.

[Damon]

In the mid 1960s they were selling men's skirts in Carnaby street. You could buy boy's dresses in the boy's Department of Bentalls in Kingston in sizes up to age 8. We bought two for our four year old, a shirt waist one and a sort of Tee shirt dress. Colts, a store specialising in boys clothes sold cute back buttoning smocks. It really did seem to be about to take off. Now, 60 years later I am still waiting.

[LiuBang]

Another exception would be a bath robe.

I have wondered if robe like garments might be the next thing to gain traction.

Will men's robes gain traction before men's skirts? Don't know--skirts at least allow you to look traditionally "masculine" with men's shirts from the waist up (and people glance at your torso, not your legs, to determine your sex). OTOH with dresses/robes, you look "feminine" from the neck down.

I would much, much rather skirts be normalized for men than robes. Skirts are less twisty and therefore more freeing. Skirts are more versatile and go with any shirt. Before trying on a kilt, I imagined that skirts would be just like the lower part of a bathrobe. I imagined skirts would be just like the long tunic I wore once for a play. But once I actually wore my kilt, I realized skirts were far lighter, breezier, and dressier than bathrobes, or even the tunic I wore.

Bathrobes skew female here in San Diego, although it's not uncommon among men. I suppose that's because women's bathing suits often don't cover the legs like men's suits do.

I often refer to bathrobes as "nightgowns."