Style

[Uncle Al]

When it comes down to patterns versus solids,
I use a patterned top(shirt) and solid bottom(skirt/trousers).
When I wear a tartan pattern kilt, I always wear a solid color shirt.
What is a real turn off is vertical stripes on a shirt with horizontal
stripes on a skirt.

Uncle Al

[Faldaguy]

When it comes down to patterns versus solids,
I use a patterned top(shirt) and solid bottom(skirt/trousers).
When I wear a tartan pattern kilt, I always wear a solid color shirt.
What is a real turn off is vertical stripes on a shirt with horizontal
stripes on a skirt.

Uncle Al

Hey UA; show us some pictures -- better than a thousand words!

[robehickman]

Not everything she says will work on men due to different body proportions, but the general ideas work.

Color theory would be an example of something that could be used by anybody. Also, guidelines regarding the use of different patterns in the same outfit.

Yes. Something that I've noticed often makes a man wearing a skirt look odd, is if the bottom is too bright in relation to the top. It draws the viewers eye down too much.

In general, the skirts that I've noticed look the most natural on men are black / in other dark colours, and are not visually fussy.Basically they are not designed to pull the viewer's eye. The natural visual focus of the male body is generally the shoulders, drawing the eye elsewhere tends to look odd.

Bright / highly pattered bottoms should be paired with equally bright or pattered top garments. One piece 'dresses' in a uniform fabric also solve that problem.

In historic menswear that includes skirts, such as Tudor doublets, the whole garment is designed to work harmoniously with itself.

Also, I think that the main reason skirts on men tend to look odd are because men do not know how to choose appropriate garments, or style them in ways that work, not anything inherent in skirts as a semantic concept. Direct copying of female styles almost never works due to body shape differences.

[Mouse]

Most of my outfits have the main colour/pattern thing as the skirt. I have done some with colour in the top and tights, when wearing a black skirt, but I am not really into patterned tops. I used to wear a lot of tops with logos, witty phrases or other stuff on them, but as I have got older, I just want to be me and not shout at the world with what is on my chest. Hence I mainly wear plain tops with a lot of them being white or black.

I now think the skirt is the main thing in my style and look, with my hat, top, legs and feet playing accompanying roles.

I am very happy to try new things a learn however I don't appear to be following the above rule?

[Grok]

One guideline I have seen mentioned...if using more than one pattern in an outfit, have one pattern smaller than the other. Considerably smaller. So one pattern is dominant in the overall look.

[Grok]

Sock lengths listed/described.

[yardstick]

When it comes down to patterns versus solids,
I use a patterned top(shirt) and solid bottom(skirt/trousers).
When I wear a tartan pattern kilt, I always wear a solid color shirt.

Most of my outfits have the main colour/pattern thing as the skirt. I have done some with colour in the top and tights, when wearing a black skirt, but I am not really into patterned tops. I used to wear a lot of tops with logos, witty phrases or other stuff on them, but as I have got older, I just want to be me and not shout at the world with what is on my chest. Hence I mainly wear plain tops with a lot of them being white or black.
I now think the skirt is the main thing in my style and look, with my hat, top, legs and feet playing accompanying roles.

Both Uncle Al and Mouse show that the visual aesthetics of having half patterned and the other half plain is the optimum as it draws the attention to the patterned item, if the whole outfit was patterned then some of the attention would be lost.
As for which way round is very much the choice of the wearer but at present the public at large normally expects men to have plain bottom outfits (unless its a kilt of course) so we must expect to be noticed when bold enough to deviate from this.

In general, the skirts that I've noticed look the most natural on men are black / in other dark colours, and are not visually fussy.Basically they are not designed to pull the viewer's eye. The natural visual focus of the male body is generally the shoulders, drawing the eye elsewhere tends to look odd.

This is due in part to the fact that the public at large is only used to seeing men in rather boring trousers in drab colours so by keeping the skirt in a more subdued colour scheme is less of a surprise and is therefore less likely to gain as much attention and probably even invisible (seen as shorts) to some of the general public so completely uninteresting.

[Grok]

I have worn a scarlett Macabi, with ordinary male drab above. This led to the concept of a peacock tail. Consider a skirt as an alternative focal point, the main focal point, the focus of your rig.

[phathack]

I always pair a pattern or bright color, yellow, pink etc. with a contrasting color. Pink mid pull on skirt with a white boar neck top or similar.
A an animal print bubble skit with a black top.