Kilt to True-Skirt Upgrade - Any Experiences?

[skirttron]

I think I shall soon be on my own for a few days so I think I might be a bit more adventurous than usual. I frequently wear my kilts in modern style but the only time I've been out in public in a true-skirt before is when my sister-in-law dressed me up for halloween. I will probably play safe with a denim skirt and stay in affluent cosmopolitan areas for safety.
Does anyone else have experiences to relate of kilt to True-Skirt upgrade.

[Since1982]

I upgraded directly from sarong/sulu/tupena wearing to skirt wearing, never had a kilt. Live in the hot south, wool just doesn't go over well here. :ninjajig: :whiteflag

[binx]

What is a "True Skirt"? CitySkirts, UKs, Macabis...? Or does it have to be one made for women?

binx

[gshubert]

I spent two months this summer at a college in Santa Fe, NM. The first day or two I wore my black Amerikilt, then changed to a Mountain kilt, then to mostly above-the-knee denim, cargo, and hiking skirts. I didn't get a lot of comments, but the ones I got were all favorable. I got used to them and found them all quite comfortable. When I wore pants one day the last week, some people asked "Where's your skirt?" It was a good experience. Go ahead, be adventurous.

[RichardA]

I wish I could be as daring as you, in my home town I can get away in my kilt, but a skirt no way, perhaps if I went to a town were no one new me maybe better.
I do like my kilt, but a denim skirts as so cheap and easy to wash

[Since1982]

I don't know, but it might be a skirt that is not a "wrap skirt" a wrap skirt could be just any piece of material wrapped around to form a skirt/skirtlike garment. I'd think a "true skirt" might just be one sewn to BE a skirt and that couldn't be "unwrapped" like say, a sarong might be. I've never heard the term "true skirt" before but it does make a bit of sense. Just an idea...comments??

[Stu]

I wish I could be as daring as you, in my home town I can get away in my kilt, but a skirt no way, perhaps if I went to a town were no one new me maybe better. I do like my kilt, but a denim skirts as so cheap and easy to wash

Richard

Try going out in a plain denim skirt with masculine accoutrements and forget about it. Trust me - hardly anybody will notice and nobody will bat an eyelid! Within a very short time, you'll wonder what you were so worried about.

If I can do it in gritty former steel and mining towns and cities in South Yorkshire, any man in the UK can do it.

Stu

[skirttron]

My definition of "True Skirt" (or "True-Skirt") is a skirt that is free from association with any tradition that could supply a defeatist justification to an enquirer for wearing it other than the real justification, which is "because we want to".
A tartan kilt, especially when worn traditionally, invites fruitless discussion of clan tartans and ancestry, and I'm afraid I have played along with that rather than rebuff the enquirer with "no, it's just another skirt to me".
An unpleated skirt off the women's rack is definitely a True Skirt, and a traditional tartan kilt worn with highland regalia is definitely not. Like the distinctions between hard and soft sciences, the distinctions between traditional dress and true skirts are sometimes well-defined and sometimes fuzzy.

[crfriend]

My definition of "True Skirt" (or "True-Skirt") is a skirt that is free from association with any tradition that could supply a defeatist justification to an enquirer for wearing it other than the real justification, which is "because we want to".

That's actually pretty good, and it works well. To put a finer pointon it might be to that a "true skirt" is an unbirfucated garment that cannot be misconstrued as being fundamentally a man's garment". That is a bit on the wordy side, I know, but it's the best I can do at the moment, and I wanted to avoid Skirttron's notion of "defeatist" because it's purely perjorative.

In short, we wear these garments because we want to, and we are comfortable in them. Lar's comments, and -- more to the point -- actions, in 1983 (going back darned near a quarter-century!) speak volumes to this (see the "bravehearts.us" site under "essays").

I've never owned a "true kilt" because of the cost associated with them (some very charitable folks have called me a "cheap b@stard") both at purchase time and at dry-cleaning time. So, in keeping with my character, I took the cheap way out -- "true" skirts.

[nitrox]

I was reading the bible in a local church (baptist) and read the section on clothing for the genders.. I found where it said in a broad sense that women and men shouldn't wear each others clothes, but I think that was to clarify some earlier books. Yet, here's something else. I find so many girls who're teenaged, wearing guy's shorts (they're long, down to the knee) and their parents are fine with it. I saw one in church and acted like it was nothing.

I'm going to suggest something to the people at church tomorrow like, "man, it's hot! I don't know about the guys in here, but the girls don't seem to be complaining as much or at all. I'm going to find out what their secret is and copy it!" I'll probably find that they're wearing skirts and dresses and have nice breeses.

The idea is that, I see so many girls wearing guy's shirts or regular t shirts made for males because no other item at the time is made for women/girls. I again (like it matters) saw a woman at my bank wearing a man's dress shirt that was black with small white boxes, which no one seemed to notice.

I also had an idea. When women want to be seen as stronger, they wear men's clothes and have no problems with it because it's somehow good to have male traits. However, I think men need this kind of thing too. Instead of being all tough and looking as if you just got done with manual labour and are sweaty as, there should be a "we have a softer side as well, and sometimes feel like dressing like it." But I know some men think they would lose their masculinity if they dressed "unmanly like" as I've heard a few times, "I wear boxers so I can feel my bits hit my leg once in a while. Otherwise I would wander if I still have them." There's many other responses but to me they all sound like they're very insecure about who they are if they need to be reminded of it all the time. I don't need to hang out with other blokes to know I'm a bloke, nor do I need to wear a special kind of knicker to feel what's between the legs. Then there's the issue of "crotch rot" "swam crotch" and many other names for it. But somehow I see nothing being done about this weird uncomfortable feeling resulting from wearing too much clothing on a warm day. I don't know about you (bloke with swamp crotch)but I have AC and I'm turning it on! Have fun sweating, dumbass!

[Steven]

I really don't want to start a biblical religous war here, but what the bible says about which sex is supposed to wear what does not exist.

The part where it does say such things is that a man should not dress as a women as to only go where women are allowed and that a women should not dress as a man to only go where men are allowed. Theres also the part that men shold not dress as women to avoid being drafted in going to war.

Suffice it to say, there are many things written in the bible as to what we should and shouldn't be doing. Thing is, there are many things people anyways in spite of what is written.

We could start a huge argumentative talk about all this and we would end up back at the same place that started it all.

Stop fretting over what you want compared to others and dress for yourself instead.

Steven (who doesn't need no stinkin skirt to express his soft side)

[binx]

That's actually pretty good, and it works well. To put a finer pointon it might be to that a "true skirt" is an unbirfucated garment that cannot be misconstrued as being fundamentally a man's garment". That is a bit on the wordy side, I know, but it's the best I can do at the moment, and I wanted to avoid Skirttron's notion of "defeatist" because it's purely perjorative.

The skirts I mentioned fit that description, while still being a man's garment. The UK has often been asked about as a skirt, even a dress from the even less-informed. That said then, a "true skirt" would, by your post, be a skirt made for a woman. We, however, indeed wear them because we want to, and by doing so, are not women's garments. Basically the men's skirts are not so easily available nor affordable by many. So much could be accomplished merely by having a unisex department in the stores, put some skirts there, and let the public decide. No more excuses for making a purchase from the men's or lady's departments by either gender. An even bolder move is to just have a clothing department, period.

binx

[crfriend]

The skirts I mentioned fit that description, while still being a man's garment.

My take on Citiskirts and Utilikilts is that they're fundamentally male garments because they're specifically tailored for the male body -- with a lot of pride evident, I might add.

The Macabi fills a useful grey area -- the original Macabi was intended for women; some men took the garment up as their own, and the Macabi folks then decided to actively market to a male audience (the "blood in the water" reaction). This is what I might describe as a "crossover" skirt.

The UK has often been asked about as a skirt, even a dress from the even less-informed.

Your call of "uninformed" is dead on; the viewer did not realise that he (or she) was, in fact, looking at a fundamentally male garment, specifically tailored for the male physique.

That said then, a "true skirt" would, by your post, be a skirt made for a woman.

That's pretty much correct. Until a tiny number of clothiers decided to make an effort to design skirts (as opposed to kilts) for men, the only option was to either "roll your own" (as many of us seem to have) or to jump across the aisle to the "womens' section". So, yes, you got me on that one -- fair and square.

We, however, indeed wear them because we want to, and by doing so, are not women's garments.

There's rational, forward thinking in action. Some womens' kit simply does not work on the male physique -- highly tailored garments come to mind, or garments that cover areas above the waist (the girls have things "up there" that men don't (not that you'll hear me complaining about that!) and the cut of womens' upper garments reflect and celebrate that (see the prior parenthetical comment)). But, for the most part, and for what most blokes would likely find comfortable, having the initial pattern cut for a woman's physique (although I suspect that most blokes, at least those without beer-bellies ) really doesn't matter all that much; "juniors'" or "misses'" cuts seem to work quite well, as those aren't designed with as large a hip/waist ratio. (At least that seems to work for my physique.)

An even bolder move is to just have a clothing department, period.

My main fear in that regard is that the "clothing department" would fill up with pants and jeans and that skirts would disappear altogether, which would be a crying shame for all involved. But -- a single department is a darned good notion. However, I doubt we'll ever see it in our lifetimes....

[Since1982]

That said then, a "true skirt" would, by your post, be a skirt made for a woman.

I have to disagree that a "true skirt" is only defined as made for women. To me, a true skirt is a sewn garment that is not a wrap garment. By being sewn it's actually an article instead of just a piece of material like for instance a sarong is, which is a wrap skirt. A "true skirt" doesn't have any gender. It's just a piece of cloth sewn into a skirt, and can be worn as such be whoever decides to wear it, whether woman, man or child. As "attire" it's simply the attire of whoever decides to wear it. When I buy a skirt out of a Lane Bryant catalog, it's true that it "was" marketed for women, but it fits me just fine with no alterations and as soon as I put one on it becomes MY attire, and I'm a man so as of that moment it becomes, as long as I wear it, a man's skirt. No gender at all.

[Since1982]

Yep, it do. If he wears it on his head I think it could be called an "avant garde" Hat! Basically, I'm saying that if it was designed, created, and marketed as "women's clothes" and a man wears it in a masculine way he is wearing men's clothes because a man is wearing it. If we denigrate back to saying that if a man wears womens clothes he's a crossdresser or some other label we are losing the fight for equal rights to wear what we please without our clothing being labeled by gender.