skirtcafe.org

Hello All,
this week has been a big one for me. I started going to my normal place of work wearing skirt and tights. I had cleared it beforehand with HR and my boss who had no issues with it, so Monday was my big day. I chose my plain brown kilt skirt and plum coloured tights, brown trainers. As people were forewarned to expect me in looking different I had no problems with it. One comment from a male colleague -"I'm loving the outfit". Tuesday was the same skirt but with some green tights. I got some double takes in the restaurant but no problems, the girls serving the food were very interested and liked the look. Wednesday I changed it a little and wore my black denim skirt and pale purple tights, grey trainers. This felt really comfortable. I am away now, hopefully I will not have to wear trouser again. I have dreamt for a long time of going to work in my skirts, and now it is real. Seems unreal. But there we are I am happy.

Good for you

Good for you!

What do you do?

Big step, very well done.
I reckon the workplace may be the springboard to wider acceptance.
Steve.
Word of warning though, you will find yourself expanding your wardrobe.

Very good! I'm glad you have an employer who is open-minded.

Sounds like it went very well and it's good your HR had no issues with it. I was nervous the first time I told my HR team, they were understanding but they thought more along the lines of someone transitioning... I tried to explain I just felt more comfortable in a skirt, but after a couple of comments like "okay...?" and rolling eyes from one member of the HR department I chose dress down Friday to wear a simple grey pencil skirt and black tights, boots as it was winter, and a top that was more androgynous so I was not so much one half man, the other half woman which might have added to any confusion. Like you other members of staff had been 'warned', I am in a customer facing role, but although I was scared as hell inside, customers didn't seem to be too bothered from what I observed. There were double takes and some of the black girls don't like it and roll their eyes when they saw me, but I thought it was important to take the plunge...

Well done, any pictures of your outfits you wore?

@Caultron I work in a large higher educational establishment
@kilty Yes I have a picture but I'm not sure how I put images into posts on here. I can see an Img button, but have no idea how it works - any clues?

jeffreyrichards2015 wrote:@Caultron I work in a large higher educational establishment
@kilty Yes I have a picture but I'm not sure how I put images into posts on here. I can see an Img button, but have no idea how it works - any clues?

You can use the "upload attachment" feature. I don't use it, as I upload my pictures to my site then use the IMG tag.

Thanks. I tried the upload attachment and the image is too big to be allowed. I tried linking to the image on another site but only half the photo shows up in the preview.
Still baffled.

If the image is too big, try resizing it using MS Paint, Photoshop or GIMP then upload it again.

jeffreyrichards2015 wrote:@Caultron I work in a large higher educational establishment...

Thanks.

Are you in a customer-facing position, such as a teacher, admittance interviewer, or administrator, or more of a back-room type of guy?

I work in the corporate headquarters of a company that owns/manages hotels. Since I'm at the HQ, no guests see me. I didn't bother clearing with HR or management, just went ahead and wore a skirt on what is usually my casual Friday. There isn't any real dress code in this office, but I normally wear a business suit and tie Monday to Thursday and cotton pants (no jeans) and a shirt or sweater on Friday. I first wore a skirt on a Friday in early August as an experiment since many of my co-workers happened to have taken that day off. I wore again last Friday when the only person off was my direct boss. There were only a few, friendly comments and no noise from HR, CFO or office manager. I ultimately report to the CFO and he had multiple opportunities to see me during the day, the VP of HR signed a check for me and I had some interaction with the office manager.
It went well enough that I'm thinking of starting a personal skirt Friday. After all, one of my co-workers has a personal bow tie Thursday.

Caultron wrote: Thanks.

Are you in a customer-facing position, such as a teacher, admittance interviewer, or administrator, or more of a back-room type of guy?

A bit of both. I work in a lab and do occasional lecturing but I deal with students everyday, undergrad and postgrad, contractors and commercial clients occasionally.

let's see if this attachment will work this time. A photo in my lab on day three of wearing a skirt to work.

I like the lab shot. 'Tis a good look you're sporting.

I have to ask, though. That looks like some pretty heavy-duty imaging kit you're sitting next to. What do you do? Immediate thoughts are either biology or materials-science...