Man in Skirt Sighting!

[Stu]

This evening, I saw a man in a skirt in Leeds - he was just entering the railway station. He was with a woman and he had a baby in a sling-type carrier to his front. He was aged around 30-35, wearing a black tee-shirt with a green skull image on it and a long brown skirt with horizontal yellow stripes and open-toed sandals. His hair was long, unkempt light-brown dreadlocks. The woman was short, a bit plump, but dressed in a sort of hippy-anarchist fashion, too, - and I noticed she had jeans on!

I did walk in his direction to take a look in case it was a masculine-looking woman but it was definitely a male. For a start he was a good six feet three or four tall, he was skinnt but his hands were broad and unmistakably masculine, as was his neck, and he even had a very wispy beard growth. I also heard him grunt something to the woman (she was walking behind him trying to keep up with his long strides) - without question a male voice.

Stu

[gshubert]

I've been wearing kilts and skirts everywhere every day while attending a summer session at St. John's College, in Santa Fe, NM. I've occasionally seen a younger fellow wearing a sarong. I think he's the one who drew two circles on one of the white boards, one labeled "Times I'm truly happy" and the other "Times I'm wearing pants". The two circles were completely separated, with no overlap, suggesting (like a logic diagram) that there was no coincidence at all between the two categories.

[ChrisM]

My #2 Daughter is a Johnnie... Santa Fe class of, errr, 2005 I think.

I wish I could find the time and money to do the Graduate Institute, myself.

...

Skirt related content: When we attended Nell's graduation in Santa Fe, she politely asked me NOT to wear my skirts on campus, as it would embarass her. So Saint John's missed a chance to have a skirted male on campus - but not by much!

...

Chris

[Sarongman]

Here in Australia we don't get foreign periodicals immediately, so the Country Life magazine from England I leafed through was a few weeks old BUT the photo within was a few decades old. (late 50s) My gaze was riveted to a photo of a Sir somebody or other looking very distinguished, as only the old aristos can, in his garden in a dark khaki twill kilt which looked like the ancestor to the utilikilt. I'm sure you English members can find it in your local library with some due diligence. Maybe it is only the plebian classes, as a whole that feel threatened by men in unbifurcated garments. Although farmers and shepherds clung on to a smock dress well into the late 19th century.

[iain]

I wore a green cargo skirt to London on Saturday and had a few looks but nothing more. I often wonder if anyone goes away and re-thinks about fashion as a result of seeing someone like me, an ordinary looking guy mooching around town in a cargo skirt?

The thing ended up getting torn because it didn't allow enough movement of the legs. It was fine around the house but once I started outdoor striding and climbing over chairs it gave way!

I must say, if you want to just not think about what you're wearing, shorts are also a comfortable and a good bet. I just wish skirts on men were common enough that some manufacturer would solve a lot of these problems for us. I don't want to always wear a kilt!

[AMM]

I wore a green cargo skirt to London on Saturday ...
The thing ended up getting torn because it didn't allow enough movement of the legs. It was fine around the house but once I started outdoor striding and climbing over chairs it gave way!

I assume that this was one of those fairly straight knee-length skirts that I see in a lot of the pictures here (not to mention on a lot of women here in NYC), which look like they limit your motion.

Your experience is the sort of things that make me not like straight skirts. I figure bondage is for the bedroom, not for street wear.

In my Real Life(tm), I find myself climbing in and out of cars, over retaining walls, up and down ladders and steep steps, in and out of boats, etc., and a skirt I can't move freely in is no good to me. My policy is that if I can't put my foot on top of my dresser (waist height) without the skirt riding up or getting tight around my legs, it's too tight.

The need for free movement also limits the length: a 33" skirt (9" from the floor) is about as long as I can wear without constantly worrying about stepping on the hem or dragging it in the dirt. I have two skirts that are longer, but I don't wear them much outside my apartment (or the dance hall) because I need to have both hands free to manage them. For hiking, I'd want even shorter -- maybe 25", and fairly full.

If you're climbing up and down, etc., there's also the issue of whether people can see under your skirt. Has anyone experimented with, say, a ruffled petticoat (short enought to not normally be visible), to see if it obscures the view from underneath?

-- AMM

[iain]

I'm starting to get over the novelty value of skirts now and deal with the practicalities and I must say there isn't a lot to recommend them from a practical point of view, sometimes!

Kilts need boots or they look weird -- short sarongs are too light for town and long ones get caught up in things or billow about. Cargo skirts are too tight, and floaty gypsy stuff is just too feminine. Short ones are overtly sexual but a man can't get away with this like a woman can, because a sexually overt man is often seen as a pest, I mean, at airports and public places.

That leaves coolness as the reason to wear them but light shorts can also be cool. In five years of wearing them publicly I haven't seen any changes on the street -- I'm still the only one when I go out and I hate being the centre of attention just because of that. I wore a short one to a pool BBQ last weekend and ended up feeling quite uncomfortable from all the attention which was largely unspoken.

I still really enjoy them but I feel in need of a breakthrough to make them practical enough and balanced enough for everyday public wear without the lame "it's a kilt so it's ok" excuse. Anyone else in this state? What did you do to get past it?

[Big and Bashful]

Iain,
OK I don't wander round in public in a skirt, I'm not that brave. Being large I stand out in a crowd anyway, and that's without dressing differently. However I do use the kilt a lot now, People still ask "Are you going somewhere special?" or similar. I say "no", then when they ask why I just say "comfort" or "the kilt is 18 years old, so I am going to get some use out of it". Another reply which has occured to me but not been used yet is "I am sick of the crotch in my trousers / jeans wearing out so I am going crotchless.". That one is true, a pair of trousers will give up after 4 to 5 weeks and it gets expensive. So, trousers at work, at home a kilt for public use and a skirt for at home or in the dark.
Current problem: hiding my skirts from the cleaner! I just don't want it to be public knowledge in the village.
Why is life so complicated?

[MtnBiker]

Iain, the look-at-me aspect of it what I like least as well. I do find unbifurcation to be most comfortable if I'm moving about at all, but if I doing something where I have to sit for long periods, like driving or a movie, I'd rather have on pants.

What I really want is the option to wear basically what I want without being so stand-out-in-a-crowd-ish. Not gonna happen in my lifetime.... so I just put up with it.

[crfriend]

[... T]he look-at-me aspect of it what I like least as well. [...]
What I really want is the option to wear basically what I want without being so stand-out-in-a-crowd-ish.

I really wonder at times if the "look at me" aspect is in our minds. We're obviously acutely aware of it, or at least we speak of it fairly often, but in reality it seems that most folks just don't care (or, perhaps more likely, don't notice). Certainly the feeling seems more prevalent if we're pushing the envelope a bit by wearing bright colours or something that will catch the eye, but as has been pointed out myriad times, things like denim skirts just don't register on the eyes of observers.

Are we fretting for no good reason?

[AMM]

I'm starting to get over the novelty value of skirts now and deal with the practicalities and I must say there isn't a lot to recommend them from a practical point of view, sometimes!

Kilts need boots or they look weird -- short sarongs are too light for town and long ones get caught up in things or billow about. Cargo skirts are too tight, and floaty gypsy stuff is just too feminine. Short ones are overtly sexual...

One way to deal with it is to make your own, with the characteristics you like.

Right now, I have a couple of skirts I'm willing to be seen in my town in. One is a long "flared" denim skirt from a catalog house. Another is a denim skirt I made myself, with jeans-style pockets, fly, and belt loops, which is over-the-knee (22 inches.) Another is a navy blue pleated skirt that is also over-the-knee, which I got from a thrift shop.

I also wear different styles of skirts for different occasions. For dancing, where more flambouyant skirts are appreciated, I go for brighter colors and more interesting (sometimes "feminine") styling. If I'm going out among Muggles, I wear dull colors and plainer styles. And when I'm home, I dress to please myself .

That leaves coolness as the reason to wear them but light shorts can also be cool.

I can't say that skirts are all that much cooler than shorts. They're cooler than long trousers, but mostly on the calves and ankles, where I don't need it.

The main thing I like is the sense of freedom, and the fact that there isn't any cloth at my crotch. I'm having various medical problems due to having sweaty cloth around there for much of the day, and I find that when I wear a skirt, the problems are less.

Plus, they're fun.

In five years of wearing them publicly I haven't seen any changes on the street -- I'm still the only one when I go out and I hate being the centre of attention just because of that. I wore a short one to a pool BBQ last weekend and ended up feeling quite uncomfortable from all the attention which was largely unspoken.

I'm afraid that we can't ever really expect much change among the public at large as long as we are such a tiny minority. A man wearing a skirt is probably always going to be an oddity (at best), sort of like a two-headed calf, at least in our lifetimes. Our choice is to either go on doing what we like and be conspicuous and thought a little odd, or give up and dress to blend in.

You're not very specific about what "being the center of attention" involves, but assuming it's restricted to people looking at you and then going on about what they were doing, and maybe the occasional person asking why you're doing it (which is my experience), one option is to just start seeing yourself as someone people are going to be looking at all the time. When you think of it, it's not much different from what celebrities go through all the time. For that matter, I have the impression that women, more than men, have to deal with people looking at them and noticing them all the time, regardless of what they wear or whether they like it. (Though some kinds of clothing attract more attention than others.)

-- AMM

[ChristopherJ]

The thing ended up getting torn because it didn't allow enough movement of the legs. It was fine around the house but once I started outdoor striding and climbing over chairs it gave way!

I wear short skirts and I have found that the only ones that work well for me are stretchy ones - as they have enough 'give' in the material to allow for a male stride etc. and yet still be modest. Skirts made out of material such as denim or cotton often have elastane or something like that in them, so they are fairly easy to find.

The 'why' of skirt wearing hasn't changed for me yet. The main thing for me still is the feeling of freedom. I also feel relaxed when wearing a skirt. The two go together, I think.

In addition, I also wear skirts because I want to be a bit different. I want to express my own personality or whatever through my attire. I got so fed up with the male clothing available in the shops, that I began to have brightly coloured trousers made up for me - as I could not buy any gay (in the original sense!) trousers anywhere. I then went on to wearing skirts sometimes as another means of expressing different facets of my character. It's just another part of me . . .

[crfriend]

I wear short skirts and I have found that the only ones that work well for me are stretchy ones - as they have enough 'give' in the material to allow for a male stride etc. and yet still be modest.

I have two (home-made) minis that are essentially wraps with an overlap of about ten inches (worn in front, kilt-style) that work quite well under active use and, additionally, tend to settle between my legs when sitting. This was plain blind luck as they were the first ones I made. I also, on occasion, borrow a pleated mini of my wife's that works very well, even though not elastic in any way, because of the pleats.

The rest of my skirts tend to be longer and fairly full although I do have an ankle-length one that's straight and does hinder a full stride. I just deal with that when I wear it.

[iain]

It's an interesting thread for sure. By "centre of attention" I mean, at the BBQ I had to constantly move around because I was doing the cooking and thick smoke immediately blew in huge gusts towards whichever side I was on. I could feel people staring and that made me self conscious -- you know, you can hear people talking to someone and as you turn the voice becomes louder behind you so you know they're turning towards you. So my movements became awkward and I couldn't relax.

Or you turn to see someone and their head is looking at you but the eyes have already darted away at what now seems an unrealistic angle. Or people go quiet and you also can feel they're staring! I was hardly outrageous -- it was an athletic looking skirt with a string tie, and I wore a swimsuit under. the thing was dark green with white and red edged pockets and looked like it could have been easily made for a guy. Maybe that's what people were trying to figure out.

I do have a dark blue one which is very heavy cotton material, falls into dozens of rounded pleats and drapes obligingly during movement. But it is kinda short - I couldn't find a longer one!

[Sasquatch]

By "centre of attention" I mean, at the BBQ I had to constantly move around because I was doing the cooking and thick smoke immediately blew in huge gusts towards whichever side I was on.

As the old saying goes, "Smoke always follows the pretty ones."

the thing was dark green with white and red edged pockets and looked like it could have been easily made for a guy. Maybe that's what people were trying to figure out.

Since there was so much smoke, maybe they were watching to see if you were burning supper! Or maybe just to see if it was time to eat?
Sasq