What makes a skirt manly v feminine

[Chip]

The same skirt will probably be perceived differently if you were wearing it in a night club, walking past a building site or on a tropical beach.

I hope you don't mind me quoting you for an article I recently published, The Masculine Approach to Wearing Skirts

https://everybodyskirts.com/masculine

The image you referenced was also a great example to use.

Actually, this whole thread had many ideas to draw from

[STEVIE]

Hi Jordan,
You have resurrected an oldy, to my own amazement I haven't
contributed already.
The real answer has to be nothing, in my opinion anyway.
If we can accept that items of clothing cannot be assigned gender, logically a skirt or dress should not be deemed masculine or feminine.
Ok, that's a naively simplistic solution, tongue in cheek too, but at bottom line, the truth.
Fashion freedom for men will never be achieved if all men do is fret over the creation of male versions of female design, it simply won't work.
Taking a leaf from the way that women's fashion has broadly evolved, the ladies took clothes, and made them their own, period.
That's not to say that it was without a hell of a struggle nor that it's complete either.
I also believe that very very few humans have the absolute freedom to choose absolutely, how they clothe their own bodies.
Steve.

[Mouse]

Jordan

That is an interesting piece of work and I think what you are doing is great. My only problem is that the more I read, the more I didn’t want to follow the rules you were suggesting. The mapping showing the blue lengths to buy your skirts, started my brain searching for skirts in the white length section. I know I am not a good rule follower, but having escaped the man drab box, I want a rule free dressing vibe.
You are correct in that when I dress for work, I tone everything down with skirts in the blue section. But play Mouse, as you can see in my pics pages, is largely free to dress as I please, taking inspiration from many sources.

[Myopic Bookworm]

The length thing is interesting. I have two black denim skirts, one just above the knee and one definitely mini; but judging from my selfies, the shorter one looks *less* feminine to my eyes, I think because the silhouette then resembles shorts, whereas the longer one is quite plainly unbifurcated all the way down.

[robehickman]

To my eye the absolute length of a skirt is less important than how it visually balances with the torso. For example, it often works to my eye when an A-line skirt has the same width at the hem as the width of the wearers' shoulders. This works for things from above the knee to floor length in my opinion.

[Stu]

I don't tend to go for a "many" skirts so much as ones that are not ostensibly feminine. I then wear ordinary male attire and the final look is naturally masculine. My favourite styles are plain, usually denim or cargo and straight or A-line.

[crfriend]

Stevie is right in this. We need to abandon the old thinking altogether and craft something new. If we don't, we're going to find ourselves in the same old gulag as we were before -- and I don't think that's what anybody wants or needs.

Let's instead strike out on the vastly more daring course of discovering what looks good (objectively, from photographs [0], and subjectivey, "what makes us feel good") and work from there. I rock lengths from mini to floor-sweeper; they all look decent, and make me happy -- both "buttons pushed" at once. Sure, some of it is environment-related, but that's perfectly natural. We can do this. If we don't, nobody is going to do it for us. It's up to us. "Help" is NOT on the way.


[0] I use photographs extensively because I've found that mirrors lie. They tell us what we want to see. A photograph tells us what the world around us sees. Try this sometime. Examine yourself in your favourite outfit in the mirror, then expose a photograph and examine that. They will look VERY different (to you).

[robehickman]

I think a lot of the points raised in Jordan's article relate to consistency in visual language. Man's clothing has historically been based on a visual language of lines and hard angles, and this probably originates from men's bodies often being quite angular. Woman's bodies tend to be more curvy and woman's fashion tends to be more curvy, I don't think that's a coincidence.

It is probably possible to create looks for men based on 'curvy' visual language, and Jordan's points about fitted tops (which ties to an idea in fashion called 'fit and flare'), would probably be one way of approaching it.

On people with more angular faces, there will be a visual language mismatch between the design of the clothing and the shape of the face, even where the rest of the body is covered.

[Barleymower]

That's a loaded question, so I'll give you the bottom line answer straight up:

3,000 years of arbitrary human customs and cultural trends.

Why are bad ass cars always called by female pronouns? "My God look at that Corvette... she's a beaut..."

Why do most people refer to dogs by male pronouns by default? "Here boy! Come on boy... catch the ball... goood boy!"

Some people look at the moon as feminine and the sun as masculine, then again, some people believe there are such things as Lunar Gods...

Clothes are just clothes... we assign gender to them.

I was hacked off that we are even debating what makes a skirt masculine or feminine. I was going to write something but it has already been said (see above by moonshadow).

I'll add it's not the clothes that make someone masculine or feminine it's the person inside them.

[STEVIE]

I was hacked off that we are even debating what makes a skirt masculine or feminine.

Barleymower, you curmudgeonly old party pooping spoilsport.
This thread, is a mere 7 years old, and the human race hasn't settled on an answer in three thousand, so give the recently conscious a chance to wake up and catch that rich aroma of coffee.
Personally, I'm more than a tad hacked off, not surprised though, that a fight for men's fashion freedom is being discussed on this criteria.

BTW, Moon, The Lunar Gods all live on the dark side and just pop round occasionally to mess with the terrain to mess with humans' brains.
I'd bet they have the answer, just go out at something o'clock and sacrifice a cute young virgin Compact of your choice.

Final note, perhaps the ladies among us would care to comment?
Steve.

[Stu]

I don't worry too much about how I look to others, but rather I focus on what makes me comfortable. That said, I won't want to look feminine, to I generally choose garments that are unlikely to detract from a generally masculine appearance. Most of my skirts are denim or cargo; everything else is obviously male apparel. Mostly, people either don't notice the skirt, perhaps it just blends in, or I just carry it off in such a way that I seem unremarkable. To illustrate, some years ago I wore a leather hat and plain skirt and an acquaintance I saw in town commented on the hat, laughed and said I looked like Crocodile Dundee, and asked where I got it from. His wife said she would buy him one if he liked it som much. Not so much as a word about the skirt; I'm not even sure they noticed. Maybe their eyes saw the bare legs, assumed it was knee-length shorts, and so the eyes weren't drawn to it and it didn't register.

[JohnH]

I don't care if a skirt, or a dress for that matter looks masculine or feminine. I've folded, spindled, mutilated, and ultimately burned my man card. So it doesn't matter.

John

[robehickman]

Stevie is right in this. We need to abandon the old thinking altogether and craft something new. If we don't, we're going to find ourselves in the same old gulag as we were before -- and I don't think that's what anybody wants or needs.

Let's instead strike out on the vastly more daring course of discovering what looks good (objectively, from photographs [0], and subjectivey, "what makes us feel good") and work from there. I rock lengths from mini to floor-sweeper; they all look decent, and make me happy -- both "buttons pushed" at once. Sure, some of it is environment-related, but that's perfectly natural. We can do this. If we don't, nobody is going to do it for us. It's up to us. "Help" is NOT on the way.


[0] I use photographs extensively because I've found that mirrors lie. They tell us what we want to see. A photograph tells us what the world around us sees. Try this sometime. Examine yourself in your favourite outfit in the mirror, then expose a photograph and examine that. They will look VERY different (to you).

I agree and I shared some ideas on that here:

https://robehickman.com/skirt-silhouettes-men

[Grok]

I think a lot of the points raised in Jordan's article relate to consistency in visual language. Man's clothing has historically been based on a visual language of lines and hard angles, and this probably originates from men's bodies often being quite angular. Woman's bodies tend to be more curvy and woman's fashion tends to be more curvy, I don't think that's a coincidence.

It is probably possible to create looks for men based on 'curvy' visual language, and Jordan's points about fitted tops (which ties to an idea in fashion called 'fit and flare'), would probably be one way of approaching it.

On people with more angular faces, there will be a visual language mismatch between the design of the clothing and the shape of the face, even where the rest of the body is covered.

In terms of aesthetics, I suspect that it is easier to make a 'curve'-ier/rounder skirt work on a man, than any sort of curvy top. Mens upper bodies in general, and especially the face, tend to more angular than womens'. When you get below the crotch the bodies of men and women are not very different.

[Skirt18220]

For me all this fashion talk is fun to read but does not apply to me personally.
I wear skirts that fall from my mid thigh to my knee. Other than my half dozen or so man styled kilts all my skirts were bought from the women's isle. Even my Canadian tartan kilt is from the women's side. It was given to me by a female friend. I debated changing the strap location but decided against it. I all ready have three other kilts that belt on the "female" side.
You won't ever see me wearing a long or frilly skirts or any dresses for that matter as it is not what I want. I want my legs and ,when appropriate, other parts bare that is why I like to wear skirts. this is what makes me happy and for me that is what matters.
But! Thank You for all the discussion. I find it very interesting to hear other views on life.