A Cover Girl Who’s Simply Himself

[Bob]

This is maybe the first time I've seen some of SkirtCafe's values reported on in the mainstream press, coming from someone else. I know, it's way over-the-top for most of us, but I guess that's how things happen at times. Note that the article explains that this guy is not a "crossdresser."

A Cover Girl Who’s Simply Himself

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/fashion/25andre.html

WHAT follows is, in brief (well, not so brief), the curious tale of how a handsome black man who can also look an awful lot like a beautiful black woman, except with better legs than most and a beard, happened to end up on the November cover of French Vogue...

This is perhaps the place to mention that Andre J. does not consider himself a cross dresser. Except to the extent each of us getting dressed assumes some kind of persona, his style is not drag. He is not a person in regard to whom the prefix “trans-” obtains. It is simply that Andre J., who was raised in a loving single-mother household in a housing project in Newark with the uplifting name Academy Spires, is in no sense confined by the conventions of gender. Think of him as a performance artist who rolls out his own stage every day.

[ChristopherJ]

That is a good article. Written without any sneers - and just stating the facts.

As you say Bob, Andre is rather more over the top than most of the guys who inhabit this forum, but he does make it clear that he dresses the way he does as a fashion statement. I admire him. He's black - and so coming from a culture of machismo - has a beard - and likes wearing skirts and stuff. he also has great legs!

I think that it is brilliant that he has got on the front page of (French) Vogue! We need some more of that.

By the way - here is his MySpace page. I am sure that it is genuine - i.e. really his - as there is a lot of photos there that only he could have come up with really. It's worth a look - just to see his crazy fashion ideas. It shows a photo of that Vogue cover too.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... id=3650193

[Departed Member]

Well! HE might not consider himself in 'drag'!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bob]

Well! HE might not consider himself in 'drag'!!!!!!!!!!!!

His hair is real and he doesn't use breast forms. Nor does he take on a femme personna. Over the top, yes. Drag, no.

If this man can be accepted as a guy with an extreme sense of fashion, then everyone here can be accepted as a guy with an unusual (but not so extreme) sense of fashion.

[iain]

Notice also how the guy seems very HAPPY. Compare his expression to the leaden, sombre, anxious and frustrated commuter types, in their sombre suits and jackets, carrying their tensions to work!

The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek, "to have a God inside oneself." They believed it was enthusiasm which was needed to overcome the problems of the day, and enable movement to new situations.

Notice how unenthusiastic people always seem to be facing the same problems all the time; enthusiastic people always seem unusual, and powered by some kind of internal dynamo. This guy certainly fits that word, "enthusiasm".

http://www.hi.is/~joner/eaps/enthush1.htm

[boca]

This guy is definitely over the top, but is awesome.

The term that comes to mind to describe his style is extravagantly "metrosexual": Someone who is very style and fashion conscious without boundaries to the typical "male" styles/fashion. Often its wrongly categorized as "gay", even though the man is heterosexual. His expression of this is definitely on the extreme end of the definition, with a lot of Glam.

I say keep kickin Andre! This kind of media exposure to metrosexual style, though different from skirt wearing in direct sense, still helps push the envelope open further.

[Pythos]

Not my stlyle, but definitely more power to him. Definitely more like him (if a bit toned down), is needed in our dull boring work a day society.
I'm trying.

[Peter v]

Well. um he seems to use wigs as travies seem to do. But is not I think a travie. Not in that sense. This is really taking freestyling to the limit, Where that is......

Although I myself may be in need of a wig, to replace my grey and thinning hair, to look like real normal healthy hair, that is totally different to what he seems to do. For the rest, actually, if you have a good body, then much of what women wear, can look good on you, as it is merely clothing that makes ( certain ) body figures look good. There is a limit to how far you can go before you will be looked upon as the village idiot. not meaning that wearing a skirt will eb a problem, but going as far as he does seem to go, including the wigs, is possibly looking too much as travestite behavior to many.

What he does show is that to me, men can wear (skirts) dresses and look very good in them, without any direct link to being male or female.

Being happy in / with what you are wearing is one important thing that all of us should have when wearing that which we wear.

Peter v.

[Skirt Chaser]

Oh Andre J. does sound like a fun guy. Everybody should take such pleasure in life!

[Peter v]

Oh Andre J. does sound like a fun guy. Everybody should take such pleasure in life!

I hope that we do by finally wearing our skirts and what nots. and when doing so, not having to do a crash course in spy training so that we can do it unknown to our wives, so that they will not know and stop us

When we wear, and it is as it should be, then we should also be just as happy as him, at least with skirt wearing. Ideally everything that you do should add happiness to your life, so let's make skirt wearing a positive part of that.

Peter v.