Men in Skirts Exhibit

[sscotty727]

Sorry to create a new topic, but I thought this article was interesting. They are apparently opening a new exhibit in NY about Men in Skirts. The guy running the show has some interesting points...

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"Historically, men had the panache when it came to getting dressed. They had the lace, they had the makeup. They dressed exuberantly, it wasn't considered either masculine or feminine. Look at Louis XIV or the Greeks in togas," Gaultier said.

"I'm not trying to put all men in skirts. I just want to give them the freedom to wear a skirt if they want to. Women fought for years to wear trousers."

.....

Bolton said he hopes the exhibit at least provokes questions — if not a change in wardrobe for the average man. "Men's clothing has become so standardized that there's no fun in it anymore. Let's put some fun back in fashion."

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Check out the article! Maybe one of the members from NY should go see it.

Scotty

[Firefox]

There was a similar exhibition In London last year, and a thread is here on the board about it somewhere. Skirts are somthing else guys should do if they want, but once again, it's all in the mind. I can't see they are as practical as trousers though, so it depends largely on how you want to look.

[Jamie001]

The only problem with this article is that it emphasizes "manly men". There is also nothing wrong with "girly men" as we all have a feminine side. Why does everything for men have to be so masculine? I have seen articles in women's magazies that describe how to add masculine items to a feminine wardrobe.

Men are so INSECURE that they need to be sure that somthing is masculine before they will try it. When will they realize that there is nothing wrong with expressing a little feminineity?

Sorry to create a new topic, but I thought this article was interesting. They are apparently opening a new exhibit in NY about Men in Skirts. The guy running the show has some interesting points...

---------

"Historically, men had the panache when it came to getting dressed. They had the lace, they had the makeup. They dressed exuberantly, it wasn't considered either masculine or feminine. Look at Louis XIV or the Greeks in togas," Gaultier said.

"I'm not trying to put all men in skirts. I just want to give them the freedom to wear a skirt if they want to. Women fought for years to wear trousers."

.....

Bolton said he hopes the exhibit at least provokes questions — if not a change in wardrobe for the average man. "Men's clothing has become so standardized that there's no fun in it anymore. Let's put some fun back in fashion."

---------

Check out the article! Maybe one of the members from NY should go see it.

Scotty

[stellah]

Men are so INSECURE that they need to be sure that something is masculine before they will try it. When will they realize that there is nothing wrong with expressing a little feminineity?

Very well said, Jamie! This statement should be said to all men in the world. To come to think of it - men are the ones who are discriminized, not women. Women can wear ANYTHING (meaning society will accept), but men only something... whatta BS!

[Heelfan]

All very good points guys. Although not a "skirty" person myself (only "heely"!), I would imagine that skirt-wearing guys might well find it easier (rather than harder) to wear high heels rather thasn if they had been wearing trousers/pants. Can anyone comments on this? Also, do these men-in-skirts shows (London and New York) include any possibly-related accessories such as high heels? Cheerfully yours, Heelfan

[genebujold]

All very good points guys. Although not a "skirty" person myself (only "heely"!), I would imagine that skirt-wearing guys might well find it easier (rather than harder) to wear high heels rather thasn if they had been wearing trousers/pants.

Can anyone comments on this?

Also, do these men-in-skirts shows (London and New York) include any possibly-related accessories such as high heels?

Cheerfully yours, Heelfan

You definately hit the nail on the head, Heelfan!

My bad ankle feels a lot better in a mid heel than it does on the flat floor. Therefore, I'm usually wearing 2-1/2" to 4" heels when not at work.

One day long ago, about a month after I was married, I stepped out of the shower to find my wife was doing the laundrey. All of it, including the towels!

When I complained, she went into her closet and tossed me one of her stretch-top skirts (I can't fit into her jeans...).

I was embarrassed at first, then forgot about it, then continued wearing it throughout the evening.

It wasn't until several months later I got another opportunity (laundry again), and another couple of weeks before I went into her closet and took out her skirt myself. She raised an eyebrow, said, "is this going to be a habit with you?" then hasn't said much since.

Back to the guys wearing both skirts and heels at the same time:

I wear heels out a lot (very unnoticeable).

I wear a skirt out very seldom (very noticeable), but almost always while at home (inside only - I change to jeans when I mow the lawn, get the mail, etc.).

While at home, I wear both a skirt and heels (sandals, actually). The couple times I've been out I've almost never worn high heels (but androgynous women's sandals are ok).

If I could ever find some truly long (44") denim skirts with flared, but not frilly bottoms, I'd be willing to try wearing it with a pair of heeled boots.

Sure feels funny, though...

[J-Nation]

there must be something going round - I noticed this today on a CD newgroup which somebody saw in the New York Times: November 2, 2003 Guy in Skirt Seeks Sensitivity in Brooklyn By MICHAEL BRICK WANDERING around Brooklyn in a skirt when you are a dude is a complicated affair, fraught with loaded symbols and multiple entendres, but three simple rules will get you a long way: Take short strides. Make no eye contact, except with people who are already yelling at you. No matter what, stay out of the ABC Super Stores branch in the Fulton Mall. A security guard at the ABC, John Cheeseboro, may insinuatingly ask what you are wearing under the skirt. But it is the excitable teenage girls who shop there who will almost certainly make a grab for you. "You're being a child molester," shouted the bolder of two such two girls, glossing over the fact that she was the one lifting my skirt and getting a look at some stylish boxer shorts. "I'm 15!" Mr. Cheeseboro ignored the little voyeurs and focused on maintaining eye contact with me as I took notes on his opinion of the whole "man in a skirt" deal. "I live in New York," he said. "I've seen worse. I've seen people naked." He leaned over and whispered the last bit in conspiratorial tones. An old, stooped woman walked by and asked where in the store she might find pots. The girls gone wild scampered off, presumably to smoke cigarettes and waste time, as teenagers are supposed to do. Little did Mr. Cheeseboro and the girls know, but they were test subjects in a pretty uncomplicated experiment designed to take to the streets certain notions of changing mores regarding masculinity and attire being debated across the river in the refined cultural halls of Manhattan. On Tuesday, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open a display called "Bravehearts: Men in Skirts," documenting the absence of reciprocity in the borrowing of clothing styles across gender lines. "People are beginning to talk about new forms of masculinity," said Andrew Bolton, a curator at the museum and the author of a book sharing the name of the exhibition. He cited as evidence the use of kilts in the fashion layouts of lad magazines and the popularity of the term metrosexual, which I understand refers to guys who say they are not gay but have manicures anyway. Mr. Bolton cautioned that this so-called new masculinity was all just academic theory so far and said, "For the street, it takes a brave man to walk around in a skirt." That is where I came in. I am not particularly brave, but I do have all the other qualifications needed to take the theory for a spin around the block. I am highly suggestible, humble, patient, self-assured and, perhaps most important, desperately broke. So when the call came to my office in Brooklyn, where I work as a reporter for The Times, asking if I would spend a day in a designer skirt intended for men, I named my price. A deal was reached, and the neuroses quickly set in. I went through phases not unlike the stages of grieving. For denial, I pretended that the choice had not been mine to make. I called my wife, who helped by laughing uncontrollably. "Would you feel like a total idiot?" she said. I gave no answer, and she deduced across the telephone lines that I was already taking notes for the article. "Stop writing things down." Another pause. Then she offered some real advice: "I think you should drive to work that day." I had already bargained, and denial was doing no good, so when the skirt arrived on Wednesday afternoon, I tried procrastination. I took it home, reasoning that I would put it on in the morning for a full day of going about my business and recording reactions. Besides, that way I could plan what to wear with the thing, since my closet is overflowing with choices for matching skirts. Nobody had anything helpful to offer on that score. "Well, when Axl Rose wears a skirt, he wears white socks and black combat boots," said Diane Cardwell, another reporter for The Times in Brooklyn. "Beyond that, I don't know what to say." The skirt, a wraparound, was dark gray or black or maybe navy blue ? I'm not good with colors and it had its own cloth belt. It was cut like a kilt, but the belt held only the waist, so the skirt flapped open in a brisk walk. The thing seemed rife with snares, though Ms. Cardwell and my wife recognized the name of the designer, Jean Paul Gaultier, and said the skirt looked expensive. I personally don't go in for designer stuff; Calvin Klein has been no friend of mine because, as the maxim has it, I don't want his name on my behind. But a skirt's a skirt. I stayed out until 1 a.m. Thursday covering a shootout in East New York and was assigned to return to the neighborhood the next morning. I opted for jeans and threw the skirt in the back seat, a decision I found illuminating on the matter of testing the museum's theory. I was sure I could walk around East New York in the skirt without being beaten up, but no way could I hope to interview witnesses to the shootout and be taken seriously. So the skirt had to wait until I returned to the office, in downtown Brooklyn. There, Tara Bahrampour, a reporter for the City section, noticed that I had put the skirt on backward and retied it, presumably intending to spare me humiliation. She also instructed me to tuck in my white dress shirt. I went back out to brave the world. "What's the celebration?" asked the doorman, John, who was smirking. Out in the street, I found myself trying to hide between telephone booths and cars. As people stared, it occurred to me that when you are a guy in a skirt, pretty much any abuse that anyone heaps on you seems fair. Whether the Met likes it or not, the only guys who wear skirts in the street other than rock or soccer stars are seeking attention, and the presumption is that they are selling skirts or conducting a media stunt. I walked up the block, pressing on with this particular media stunt. The need to scribble in my notebook, a defense mechanism that reporters are born with, took on new importance. I was greeted by Courtney Sowell, 18, crying that I was wearing a dress. I decided to interview him to try to make him stop yelling at me, and he decided to pose for a photograph. We each got a little something out of it. I walked on. An old man stared. People behind the windows of a second-floor gymnasium clapped and gave thumbs-up signs. More than one young woman looked me up and down, but none stopped to talk, perhaps noticing of my wedding ring. People in a diner, a gym and an eyeglass store were polite and discreet, stealing furtive glances at the skirt but paying more attention to the woman following me around taking pictures. Everything probably would have been fine if not for the trip to the ABC store. As I stood behind a rack of clothes, half wishing that I had waited just one more day, till Halloween, and hoping that the teenage girls did not plan to make off with the skirt, Mr. Cheeseboro babbled about New York and freedom of choice and so on. He volunteered, as I furiously took down every word, that he personally would not make a skirt a part of his regular wardrobe. But after considering, he allowed, "For fun, I'd probably go for it." Emma

[genebujold]

Hi, Emma. Having lived in New York for 4 years, I offer the following advice: 1. When a girl shouts "you're being a child molester!" and tries to lift your skirt, counter by saying "What the h*** are you - some kind of pervert?" If she says "yes," then say, "Well I'm not!" and walk on. 2. Don't follow Axel Rose's fasion leads - they lead nowhere. 3. When John the doorman says "what's the celebration?" simply respond with "It's airing-out day. You should consider a good airing-out every now and then. It'll cure your crotch-rot for sure." Bottom line - these responses are overt expressions of discomfort by those who're perhaps the best at being more overt with their expressions of discomfort than most. Healthy boundaries will alleviate most of the problem. You've got to be carefuly, however - if John the doorman responds with "Crotchrot - what the h*** are you talking about??!!!" simply apologize, saying, "Sorry - must of been the conversation I had with another doorman..." People out West (Vegas) are more polite. To date, I've experienced precisely 0 comments about my wearing skirts in public, and only a few second-takes. Go to San Fran, and I think there are even laws against heckling anyone else for doing, dressing, or being any different than you are.

[Pam]

Just visited the exhibition this weekend and here is my review... They have a bunch of mannequins dressed up in many different skirts from different times. There are a couple of models that show a guy wearing a mini with a nice white jacket, black tights and military boots; that is the most interesting thing to watch. No guy in heels was in the expo, or at the expo! however, a girl there made a comment that guys indeed look sey on a skirt! that was the highlight of the visit! Pam

[Heelfan]

Pam - thanks for posting, but I don't understand what is meant by a "guy looking sey on a skirt". Cheerfully yours, Heelfan

[Firefox]

"Looking sexy in a skirt" I think is the phrase you are looking for.

[Pam]

thanks firefox! sorry for the typo!