I wore a man-skirts WSJ

Clippings from news sources involving fashion freedom and other gender equality issues.
Post Reply
Gusto10
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 928
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:07 pm

I wore a man-skirts WSJ

Post by Gusto10 »

User avatar
r.m.anderson
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 2601
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 6:25 pm
Location: Burnsville MN USA

Re: I wore a man-skirts WSJ

Post by r.m.anderson »

Unfortunately can't read the article - the DAMN WSJ AD covers (fades) it out -
this and the other noteworthy articles
"YES SKIRTING MATTERS"!
"Kilt-On" -or- as the case may be "Skirt-On" !
WHY ?
Isn't wearing a kilt enough?
Well a skirt will do in a pinch!
Make mine short and don't you dare think of pinching there !
User avatar
moonshadow
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 6994
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 1:58 am
Location: Warm Beach, Washington
Contact:

Re: I wore a man-skirts WSJ

Post by moonshadow »

It fades out for me too...

Though calling it a "man-skirt" gets it off on the wrong foot IMO...

It leads me to think "oh great, another article desperately attempting to machofy the skirt so that it will finally be appealing to the insecure among us..."

News flash... the free MAN doesn't give a crap. He wears what he wants... even if the tag flat out says "LADY" on it....
-Andrea
The old hillbilly from the coal fields of the Appalachian mountains currently living like there's no tomorrow on the west coast.
K_Highlander
Active Member
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 5:32 am
Location: Northern Virginia

Re: I wore a man-skirts WSJ

Post by K_Highlander »

Here's the text from the WSJ:

I Wore a Man-Skirt (and I Honestly Didn’t Hate It)
Though Scots—and fans of their style—have worn kilts for centuries, the garment is still heavily gendered. I decided to try one on for myself

By Jacob Gallagher
June 24, 2019 10:55 am ET

ODELL BECKHAM JR. and I have very little in common. He is a three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver who made 77 catches last season and moonlights as a model in GQ spreads. I am an undersized reporter who can barely catch a cab and could get mistaken for Alfred E. Neuman on a bad day. Yet, after seeing the Cleveland Browns wide receiver convincingly wear a Thom Browne pleated skirt to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala in New York last month, I was inspired to emulate this unlikely style role model.

While Mr. Beckham Jr. strutted down the red carpet, confidently mugging for the cameras, my public debut as a skirted guy—on a Monday-morning subway ride—was inauspicious. No one scoffed outright at my Thom Browne kilt, but any straphangers who noticed me seemed to very quickly avert their gaze. I scrutinized my book, trying to act normal. Nothing to see here, folks, just a man in a skirt.

That notion shouldn’t be so alien: As far back as the 17th century Scottish men fought and frolicked in wool kilts. Watch “Braveheart” if you need a visual (come to think of it, skip the movie and just Google it). When John Peterman wanted to make kilts for his J. Peterman catalog, he went to Scotland, “where kilts should be made.” Each holiday J. Peterman sells blackwatch kilts to adventurous American men, the type who want to make splashy entrances at Christmas parties. On a more workaday note, the Canada- and U.S.-based window-washing company Men In Kilts requires that its employees wear pleated tartan skirts. Chris Carrier, the CEO of the company’s Canadian branch, said he was “shocked and surprised at just how comfortable wearing a kilt and cleaning windows is.”

In recent decades, celebrated men have intermittently flirted with the skirt in less traditional fashion. In the late 2000s, designer Marc Jacobs wore pressed white dress shirts with dark Comme des Garçons skirts in an executive-meets-kook combo. Kanye West infamously performed in a leather Givenchy skirt during his 2012 tour. Vin Diesel has deployed skirts, as have A$AP Rocky and P. Diddy (back when he was still going by that name). And last month, Jonathan Van Ness, a host of “Queer Eye,” wore a shimmering shin-length skirt on stage at this newspaper’s “The Future of Everything” Festival.

‘My overriding feeling was not embarrassment but frigidness.’

I applaud them. And any other guy with the mettle to brave a garment that, in 2019, is still heavily gendered despite its Scottish roots. As for me, on the train I just kept hearing my girlfriend’s words: “I can’t believe you’re wearing that.” I couldn’t either. The sight of myself in the mirror was a strange one. If you lopped off my bearded head and squinted, I looked a bit like a Catholic schoolgirl or Cher Horowitz from “Clueless.” Only I had stout hairy legs jutting out jarringly from beneath the dainty pleats.

Out on the street, however, my overriding feeling was not embarrassment but frigidness. It was an unexpectedly brisk spring morning and I suddenly understood, as never before, the value of trousers. Once I hit my office, I sympathized with my female co-workers about “sexist air conditioning,” the notion that workplace climes often favor the fully panted. I now feel for the women in my office, who spend April through August with chilled calves at their cubicles. As the vents above my desk spewed out chilly air, I spent the day pulling the skirt taut around my legs.

On walks to the bathroom, I kept my head held high, heeding the advice of Men In Kilts’s Mr. Carrier: “You certainly can’t be shy about [wearing a kilt] because if you are you’re probably going to come across as just a weird guy.” While some co-workers hesitantly paid me compliments (“You’re...actually pulling it off”), others seemed disoriented by my swingy style. My editor actually flinched as I swiveled around in my chair for the grand reveal. It’s that sort of reaction that draws bigger male personalities, like Mr. Peterman himself, to the skirt. “I don’t really care what people think, and I would rather do something that’s noticeable,” said the retailer, who wears kilts casually with a turtleneck sweater and boots. He finds the look pleasingly unrestricting.

I admire Mr. Peterman’s pluck, but I lack the bravura to fill out those voluminous pleats. I thought of what Thom Browne had emailed me about his skirts: “I am attracted to the confidence of a man wearing an article of clothing traditionally associated with a woman.” Perhaps someday I’ll be man enough to wear a skirt without overthinking it.

Write to Jacob Gallagher at Jacob.Gallagher@wsj.com
User avatar
r.m.anderson
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 2601
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 6:25 pm
Location: Burnsville MN USA

Re: I wore a man-skirts WSJ

Post by r.m.anderson »

Thank You K_Highlander for the transcript of the article.
"YES SKIRTING MATTERS"!
"Kilt-On" -or- as the case may be "Skirt-On" !
WHY ?
Isn't wearing a kilt enough?
Well a skirt will do in a pinch!
Make mine short and don't you dare think of pinching there !
Ralph
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 493
Joined: Wed Jun 26, 2013 9:07 pm

Re: I wore a man-skirts WSJ

Post by Ralph »

The tagline quote at the end of the article made me smile, because the subtitle of my blog is "Are you MAN enough for a skirt?"
[Insert shameless self-promotion here]
Ralph!
STEVIE
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 4187
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 11:01 pm
Location: North East Scotland.

Re: I wore a man-skirts WSJ

Post by STEVIE »

I am about to get dressed to go to work.
Last time I checked I was of the male persuasion.
I will be wearing a skirt.
Will it magically become a "MAN SKIRT"?
Er, no it won't, clothes do not have GENDER!
Steve.
User avatar
mishawakaskirt
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 720
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2015 9:59 pm
Location: INDIANA USA
Contact:

Re: I wore a man-skirts WSJ

Post by mishawakaskirt »

Ralph wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 5:30 am The tagline quote at the end of the article made me smile, because the subtitle of my blog is "Are you MAN enough for a skirt?"
[Insert shameless self-promotion here]

Ralph, I had been to your site before.
I decided it needed a reread.

A very enjoyable read, and very much sounds like we are cut from the same cloth.
Some of your comments, are exactly how I have felt.

I was especially tickled by the comments on Little House on the prairie.

I also liked the dresses of the girls in the musical movie Annie (the actress that played Annie, is the same age as me) l so wanted to dress like Annie back then.
Mishawakaskirt @2wayskirt on Twitter

Avoid the middle man, wear a kilt or skirt.
Post Reply