skirtcafe.org

I am pleased to discover several discussion forums (fora if you did a little Latin) having found comfort in wearing a skirt, and occasionally some simple plain dresses. Was I a TV, unlikely I have no interest in make up and wigs. Was I a cross-dresser, well maybe, but I was primarily a man who would often prefer wearing a skirt and stockings. I have worn some undergarments normally aimed at women, politely termed camisoles, shapewear or corsetry, but does this come into the discussion here?
I have a modest growth in my chest, a side effect of medication which has given me Gynecomastia, but not as serious for some men. So I am one of a group who need a little physical 'support'. However I want the plainest least obvious bra possible; a real problem for males here in the UK, unless a full cross-dresser wishing to create an image or illusion.
For some years my skirts, dresses and bras were usually only worn at home or for relatively short trips out, a late trip to the supermarket, partly because I could never find really comfortable undergarments. I am a big guy (UK 22 or 24, 18 - 20 US, for skirts, 50A round the chest) and so size and fit was a serious problem, even with mail-order.
I have worn stockings for some time now, but am surprised how few contributors admit to wearing this very simple classic garment. Men do wear them, some for sexual reasons, others for medical reasons, also a problem for me. At the other end of the spectrum stockings are part of the ceremonial robes of High Court Judges, and until 20 years ago the Speaker of the House of Commons! White stockings are worn by many of the men, the Elders, in the Hasidic Jewish Community in East London: the good women folk have superb opaques which are also very difficult to get hold of.
The problem I have found is to obtain the plain standard product, but in thicker styles for use in winter. The other problem with stockings is keeping them up. Many products are sold with elasticated or latex and / or lace tops, which are absolutely no use for keeping up my stockings! Simply I wear an absolutely plain garment with four slings to hold up my stockings. This again is nominally a women's garment, from the UK's Evans outsize store; this can be a useful place to get skirts and dresses. Several contributors have mentioned tights, but there are certain impracticalities with cover all 'panty-hose', as these unsatifactory garments are known in the US, including the hassle of peeling it all off for a 'call of nature'.
Another problem is getting suitable long stockings or over-knee socks. It is cold out today so I need thick stockings, and in the UK it is very difficult to find hosiery that is long enogh or fit my size 10 feet! Any ideas anyone, I'll even use US suppliers if I have to! What is comfortable and what looks sensible for a man in a skirt has to be a careful compromise. Having made the decision to wear my skirts openly, very long socks or thick stockings (50+ denier + or wool /cotton /acrylic blends), are rather difficult to find, even drew a blank in John never-knowingly-undersold Lewis. Their website isn't particularly helpful either....
I hope I have not touched on any sensitivities mentioning problems with underwear, but it was very pertinent when making the concious decision to go public, in an environment where a skirt is 'female' attire, except for a formal kilt. Scottish knee-high 'hose' is a bit nippy in winter, reminiscent of my youth, attending a boys school where uniform grey shorts were de-rigeur, hitched up with braces. Knees and thighs got cold! It is pleasantly surprising as to how warm the skirt and stockings combination can be, provided the stockings stay up properly, hence the suspenders.
My last perhaps idiosyncratic approach is straps or braces. I'm an awkward shape, a bit too much 'tum' and a bit of a skinny 'bum'! Trousers don't stay up, and neither do skirts! So when I have had skirts altered, I have tried to find sufficient material to make straps. If not able to do this, then it's six buttons and proper braces carefully selected for colour or style. Ladies love pinging men's braces. But these have also become fashion items for women and budding pop-stars on X Factor! My lady friends wearing trouser suits have often pinched this idea; another form of egalitarianism in unisex clothing! The annoying thing is that women look damn good in pinstriped trousers and braces, particularly if the lady has a pert boyish derriere! Nuff said!
So that's me. Hi all out there, I hope to make the odd useful contribution to these columns, where I can chat with some like-minded souls. Cheers!
Time for a coffee

Welcom to skirtcafe.Plenty to learn here.

Yep, from another 'large' person, welcome!

If it's an idiosyncratic bunch your after, you've come to the right place. Keep the underwear issue private, not seen, not discussed, you'll be fine.
Simply put, welcome, and post away.
Steve.

I don't know about idiosyncratic - but all are welcoming and encouraging.

Good to hear from you (and yes, I do believe that underwear, unless meant to be visible, is frowned upon) - see under the general rules.

Hope to hear from you in the various fora. (No I didn't do Latin but I do know the correct plural of forum!)

Practical solutions is what I need please, it's just bloody cold here in the UK just now, and will get colder in the next two weeks. No skirts to Christmas at this rate, as I have also got a heavy cold, another problem for friends on both Twitter and Facebook here on this perilous little windswept island at the edge of Europe! What Euro crisis!?

@Skirtbarista, have you posted a message to me with my quote, but to Terry? I have read it, and just now I can't find my longest skirt, but a cotton underskirt could be sense, but waist size a problem. I just want some woolly stockings that fit. (Perhaps our moderator might help with the posting error if a mis-post has occurred.)

Meanwhile I am enjoying some back charts, as here in the UK Saturday lunchtime its historic 'Pick of the Pops'; this week it's December 68, the No1 was a big hit at my FE College Dance, and then Dec 88, and Quo sounds the same whether it's 68, 88, or 2008. How many old Rockers in this Group! 88 is full of Stock, Aitken and Waterman disco, which was the beginning of my giving up DJ-ing. Must be nice to Kylie, though, and did meet Pete Waterman once on a TV programme, David Frost in the chair!

Cheers H

henri wrote:@Skirtbarista, have you posted a message to me with my quote, but to Terry? I have read it, and just now I can't find my longest skirt, but a cotton underskirt could be sense, but waist size a problem. I just want some woolly stockings that fit. (Perhaps our moderator might help with the posting error if a mis-post has occurred.)

From the looks of things, I posted in response to your comment in Terry's thread which meant that my response went there rather than here. Ah, the perils of modern communication!

Having read your commentary on your size, getting a proper underskirt -- especially a heavy one -- to work might take some ingenuity, perhaps involving buttons sewn to the inside of the outer skirt's waistband to mate with buttonholes in the waistband of the underskirt. This, however, presents a problem of how to tuck one's shirt in without showing the waistband of the underskirt (when I layer, the underskirt goes on first, then the shirt, and finally the outer skirt)! The solution of braces to support the waistband of the main skirt is a very good one.

On legwear: A couple of folks here swear by Sock Dreams (I think that URL is correct), but that's a US site and I do not know if they ship internationally. You might start there for heavy over-the-knee bits.

Getting things to stay up if you have an "out of the ordinary" geometry is going to be a hassle no matter what; experimentation and alterations are going to be your friends, and when you find something that works, stick with it! Items like knee-garters exist for holding up upper-calf-length socks, but I suspect you're looking to go higher than that to cut the cold. Depending on the geometry of one's thighs, it may be impossible to get very long stockings to stay up without either shaving a space for the upper elastics to grab onto or "hardware" further up.

A practical note on very long skirts: They can be unruly and tough to control without a petticoat underneath; I had this problem when I bought my ankle-length "walking skirt" and found a petticoat pretty much a necessity (this is also period-appropriate for the skirt in question, and such garments were in common use at the time for just this reason). The upshot of that is that it unfortunately relegates that skirt to the chillier seasons, but for days like today (-5C or so forecast for a low tonight) it'll be a delight.

Henri, to answer one of your questions, I have always been a bit of a rocker, these days more blues/rock as well as some of the heavier stuff. I am also getting over a heavy cold while shivering on the Scottish West (Cold!) coast. I have also been looking on Ebay at underskirts, but haven't ordered any yet. I find a long denim skirt as warm as a pair of jeans. I don't have many skirts of other fabrics, well not skirts that I would venture out in public in anyway. As long as I am in reasonable health, I have found a kilt with appropriate hose, keeps me warm enough in sub zero temperatures on New Years Eve, when assisted by a significant amount of alcohol! That is the plan for this year as well.

Rockers?
Blues?
Sorry, I'm a confirmed Mod - "dedicated follower of fashion" I suppose. Although these days it's my own sense of fashion (or comfort, or whatever) that I sway to.
One day I'll barrel over the hill with my small frame Vespa wearing a lovely two-tone skirt.

I'm just a bit confused by your reply, purecotton. I can remember Mod fashions, miniskirts on the girls, braces on the boys.
A few wore stockings with short skirts, do you wear stockings or braces?
Braces on short skirts is very fashionable just now!

Mods don't (didn't) wear braces, that was the sign of being a suedehead or skinhead. Mods did sharp suits (mine were a lovely shot silk gold, purple with lined trousers - sensuous) Ben Sherman Shirts or Fred Perry polo shirts & a variety of "in" things over the . . . years. . . .months. . or however long mods lasted in the 80's.
These days, I'm qute happy to do the fashion statement that the Kinks had in their song "dedicated follwer of fashion" regarding an item of clothing which I'm not allowed to mention, along with the 2-tone dog-tooth over-knee length skirt which was fashionable when I was a mod.
Still lots of scooter clubs about, but perhaps that's for another thread.
Perhaps I could wear the stockings, too?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_nos ... on&x=0&y=0

I bow to your expertise on this, 'purecotton' and I'll have to listen carefully to Dedicated Follower of Fashion. Ray Davies is a local lad here in North London, and my Doctor has sung on one of his productions with the Crouch End Festival Chorus at the Roundhouse at Chalk Farm (Camden) North London. She's the nice one who says I have good legs in my stockings for fella!
But a friend in Birmingham years ago, who was a Mod in his sharp suit always wore braces, slimline 'clip on' style, but the Skinheads wore even narrower ones, but they often hung down round their backsides, not performing any useful function!
I usually wore braces, but whenever possible the classic style with buttons, and do now with my skirts.
Several of my girlfriends have worn braces on their trousers, cross dressing the other way, and said elastic straps gave uplift to the gluteus maximus. Enough of that too!

For those not in England, UK, the Roundhouse is a building dating back to 1835 for early Steam engines. In 15 years it was obsolete as locomotives were much bigger by 1850! Anyway jump 150 years and this intriguing building has been restored as a Concert Venue and theatre, and it is splendid. But I digress from Skirt and Stockings!

Hallo again, 'purecotton'. On the subject of Mods and their fashions, couple of days ago I picked up a cheapo Who compilation CD album. The Who, Then and Now, 20 tracks 79 minutes £3 at Sainsburys! Since all of my Who stuff is on precious Vinyl, this was rather good. However, I digress, so to get back to this thread, 'purecotton' suggested that Mods didn't wear braces. Well in the sleeve notes and booklet what is Roger Daltrey wearing; RED BRACES! And the notes comment on the fact that the Who were a big part of the Mod music scene ...... but I'm no expert, except that in my last year at school in the 60s, I wore slimline braces, but went back to proper ones with a suit.
My problem is neither trousers nor skirts stay up without them, I'm an awkward shape. (Too much tum, and a skinny bum!) Even a pair of Levi's StaPrest Trousers I had in the early 70s, Pure Cotton, but never a good fit, so I wore braces with them. That was long before I found the pleasure of my skirts, so liberating when one's mood goes that way. Braces are an incredibly useful item of apparrel to stop trousers or skirts 'falling round my arse' as my dear mother used to put it!

Henri, check out the glieberman company. They sell the product comfilon - stockings for men, in men's sizes.

Hi, I enjoyed reading your intro.

I'm a newbie myself.

Cheers

Hazy