Sightings "in the wild"

[dillon]

Actually spoted a guy in a black kilt tonight in Thalian Hall. I was in a new Betabrand yoga travel skort, but the place was crowded, so there was no opportunity to make contact. We saw the film "The Lady In the Van" with Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings. Two remarkable performances, and a very fine film.

[denimini]

I saw a fella wearing a cargo kilt at the supermarket about 2 weeks ago (early April '16). No one stared but there were a few double-takes,

Double takes are fair enough, it is unusual seeing a man in a skirt, and most people are very discrete about it. I think if I saw another man in a skirt I would find it hard not to gape in surprise and make some exclamation.

[skirtingseattle]

I Saw a guy in his 50s or 60s in a Utilikilt while I was visiting the Alhambra in Granada, Spain yesterday. He was wearing a sizeable day pack and was sporting 2 serious cameras. I was wearing my camouflage kilt at the time, but didn't approach him to ask where he was from.

I have been wearing my sport kilts every other day here on our 9-day holiday trip to Andalusia. My wife says that I am turning a lot of heads. She knows this because we often walk some distance apart as we are both serious amateur photographers trying to frame our shots, so she often sees me from a distance and can judge people's reaction to me from afar. Must be my great legs. All the verbal reactions have been positive including "Nice skirt" and one cat call.

Chris

[dillon]

I Saw a guy in his 50s or 60s in a Utilikilt while I was visiting the Alhambra in Granada, Spain yesterday. He was wearing a sizeable day pack and was sporting 2 serious cameras. I was wearing my camouflage kilt at the time, but didn't approach him to ask where he was from.

I have been wearing my sport kilts every other day here on our 9-day holiday trip to Andalusia. My wife says that I am turning a lot of heads. She knows this because we often walk some distance apart as we are both serious amateur photographers trying to frame our shots, so she often sees me from a distance and can judge people's reaction to me from afar. Must be my great legs. All the verbal reactions have been positive including "Nice skirt" and one cat call.

Chris

On our trip to Spain two tears ago, I was skirted most of the time. No issues.

[moonshadow]

Abingdon VA. Today 430pm
Older man with a long grey beard and long grey hair walking out if our Abingdon store with a sack of groceries.

He was wearing a black utilikilt. Would have said hi but he was too far away, but as he drove off, noted a Virginia tag. Maybe a local man?

[RPF]

Well you never know, Jaden Smith may start a trend. As I recall, it was the Beatles who got the long hair for men going (though there were others less famous before them iirc), so maybe Jaden will do the same thing for men. Yes, it is nice to be different! I suspect there are a lot of men who would like to wear a skirt who foeason or another, don't.

I think that's actually an inciteful example, but there are some clear differences for us. The mop-top hairstyle was a fashion that "bubbled-up" and spread virally among youth, which is normal among fashion trends. It's definitely a generational phenomenon. Once men, who would be the essential purveyors of our style, reach a certain age, they are not especially susceptible to fashion trends. Older men didnt rush out and leap into "mod" fashions, and long hair was more a source of contempt than attraction for the generation of men born before WWII, at least until they began to adopt the "sixties bastard children" fashions that emerged between the "flower child" and "disco" styles, during the early seventies. Remember brightly patterned rayon shirts, gold chains, and (dare I speak it) the wretched "leisure suit"?

Beatles fashion bubbled up from the young. Why? Because young women were tearing their clothes off and throwing themselves at the Fab Four. That fact was not lost on young men at the time, so it is likely that the incentive provided by teen girls helped drive the fashion adoption among teen boys. It does make me wonder what the social propulsion among the kids today may be, should skirted fashion catch fire in their generation. They do think much differently than we did, though I presume the hereditary forces of nature have not been yet lost from their deepest unconscious drives.

So will Jaden Smith make skirts attractive on the socio-psycho-sexual basis that happened with the "mod" fashions? Or is it just too far astray, in a gender-representative way? We need to remember that it took ages for older men to accept that long hair on a male didn't imply femininity. It will be interesting to observe. One thing that will be clear is that if young men begin buying skirts from "across the aisle" in any substantial number, the industry will take notice.

The next question is whether, should skirted fashions catch on among young males...

Susan Sarandon's son wears a skirt and she's proud of it. I think millenlials reject the term crossdressing and call it different names like gender fluid or something to that effect. In any case, today's younger generation seems to be more accepting of wearing what's comfortable regardless of whether it's for males or females.

[Jim2]

I think that's actually an inciteful example, but there are some clear differences for us. The mop-top hairstyle was a fashion that "bubbled-up" and spread virally among youth, which is normal among fashion trends. It's definitely a generational phenomenon. Once men, who would be the essential purveyors of our style, reach a certain age, they are not especially susceptible to fashion trends. Older men didnt rush out and leap into "mod" fashions, and long hair was more a source of contempt than attraction for the generation of men born before WWII, at least until they began to adopt the "sixties bastard children" fashions that emerged between the "flower child" and "disco" styles, during the early seventies. Remember brightly patterned rayon shirts, gold chains, and (dare I speak it) the wretched "leisure suit"?

If I understand what you are saying here, you are talking about older men wearing skirts. If Jaden Smith or any other celebrity among young people creates a trend, it won't be of older men. It will be men their age and younger. For Jaden Smith, that is not even millenials, but generation Z.

Beatles fashion bubbled up from the young. Why? Because young women were tearing their clothes off and throwing themselves at the Fab Four. That fact was not lost on young men at the time, so it is likely that the incentive provided by teen girls helped drive the fashion adoption among teen boys. It does make me wonder what the social propulsion among the kids today may be, should skirted fashion catch fire in their generation. They do think much differently than we did, though I presume the hereditary forces of nature have not been yet lost from their deepest unconscious drives.

I see more and more young women voicing a positive attitude about young men wearing skirts in the comments to articles on the subject. Another analogy to consider is men wearing earrings. That was also started by male pop celebrities. I don't know how much women's attitudes showed when that change happened.

Young people do have very different attitudes about gender and gender stereotypes than their elders, and I think that is key to the breaking down of the stereotype that men don't wear skirts. I've read that social science research is showing a huge change coming the likes of which have not been seen for over a century or two, and it is worldwide. The history of clothing in the 20th century has been one of rigid stereotypes being broken down so that clothing could become less formal and less confining. My dad, who does not know I wear skirts, was just telling me how he used to wear a tie to high school (a public school) and in college. And at the beginning of the 20th century men wore only suits, not even just a tie and jacket. He told me how he took a girl out on a date in 1943, and because she was wearing pants, a restaurant in New York would not let her in. I think we are on the verge of the final nails in the coffin of "The Great Male Renunciation" (as a man named Flugel famously called it in 1930). I only hope it happens sooner rather than later.

[crfriend]

[...]The mop-top hairstyle was a fashion that "bubbled-up" and spread virally among youth, which is normal among fashion trends. It's definitely a generational phenomenon. Once men, who would be the essential purveyors of our style, reach a certain age, they are not especially susceptible to fashion trends. Older men didnt rush out and leap into "mod" fashions, and long hair was more a source of contempt than attraction for the generation of men born before WWII, at least until they began to adopt the "sixties bastard children" fashions that emerged between the "flower child" and "disco" styles, during the early seventies. Remember brightly patterned rayon shirts, gold chains, and (dare I speak it) the wretched "leisure suit"?

It's true that men "above a 'certain age'" aren't particularly susceptible to Fashion trends, but they also seem to be much more willing to actively buck others. Take a sampling of the average age of guys on this forum; a goodly chunk of us are over 40 (and, for gods' sake, "Never trust anyone over 30!").

The penchant for short hair on guys is also fairly recent. Hair in the 19th Century varied wildly, but was mostly much longer than what was "accepted" from the 1940s to the '70s, after which, fortunately, the seeming prohibition regarding long hair on men went by the wayside. I have heard it postulated that the reason for short hair was primarily due to the military engagements in the first half of the 20th Century, short hair being the hallmark of a conscript soldier who wouldn't be able to blend into the local scenery simply because his head was shorn. I find it hilarious that many men consider Samson "effeminate", and look what happened to him when his hair was cut off!

The early '70s were really the last flowering of any hope for men's fashion; things were already starting to die down in the late '70s and when the neocons took over in the '80s the final nail was driven home. It's been a vast wasteland ever since, and I'm not sure if it'll ever take off again. My heart hopes it does, but my mind is not at all confident. In the meantime, I figure I'll try and do my best. I do have a fondness for "mod" (what a quaint term now), but cannot go too far into it lest I collect cracks about Austin Powers from the jeans-and-t-shirt crowd.

The next question is whether, should skirted fashions catch on among young males...

In a way, I hope they do, but I'm not sure whether the notion would really fly after all. Most youngsters tend to be notoriously conformant with their peers, and that has a retarding effect on the uptake of anything new. Again, I'm not confident it'll happen -- or at least in having it driven by the young.

Susan Sarandon's son wears a skirt and she's proud of it. I think millenlials reject the term crossdressing and call it different names like gender fluid or something to that effect. In any case, today's younger generation seems to be more accepting of wearing what's comfortable regardless of whether it's for males or females.

That's entirely encouraging, but does tend to call the gender and sexuality of anybody who dares to buck the established norms into question -- and that's a huge drag on getting skirts accepted on guys.

[moonshadow]

Seeing kilted men all over the place today at my hometown!

So far I'm the only one in a "skirt of a different color".

Also shook the hand of a man who calls himself Dillon, and claims to know of this site this afternoon!

Nice to meet ya buddy!

[crfriend]

Also shook the hand of a man who calls himself Dillon, and claims to know of this site this afternoon!

Nice to meet ya buddy!

The world is a small place after all.

[r.m.anderson]

Seeing kilted men all over the place today at my hometown!

So far I'm the only one in a "skirt of a different color".

Also shook the hand of a man who calls himself Dillon, and claims to know of this site this afternoon!

Nice to meet ya buddy!

So what happen someone have a wedding or forbid a funeral !
Like a murder of crows all those town folk wearing kilts something must have happened - and eventful at that !

[moonshadow]

So what happen someone have a wedding or forbid a funeral !
Like a murder of crows all those town folk wearing kilts something must have happened - and eventful at that !

Hikers!

And there's not *that* many, just more than one typically sees on any other day around here. You'll see more during the hikers parade. I recall one year I caught the front of it with a few guys turning cartwheels in floral dresses! Don't know if they will be doing that again, but I'll have my camera ready in the event!

[moonshadow]

A few favorites...

The complete album is here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/moonshado ... 8311449116
Note, the album above is OTHER men in skirts and kilts. There are no shots of me in there.

My best pic picks....







Photographs of the entire event are in this album:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/moonshado ... 8064484032

One thing that is interesting, everywhere I went today I was wearing one of my floral skirts and a very decorative top with sandals. As I review the photo's, it's interesting to see the people staring back at me... remember, I was the one BEHIND the camera... a "loud" skirted outfit. One of the photo's above has such a "what tha..." look on his face!

Also sat with Dillon for a bit today, I enjoyed my visit. Yes, he was wearing a black and white camo skirt. But I think it was a bit cool for his liking... he changed back into tights towards the end of the day.

[moonshadow]

Additionally, towards the end of the day as I went back out to the Dollar General, we spotted all of these guys wearing dresses. Some were fully decked out with wigs, makeup, high heels, etc. I'd say that has a lot to do with the habit some hikers have of hiking the trail in a dress, especially up north (so I've heard). However in all honesty I think all the guys in dresses tonight were for some type of local "function". I could tell how the guys were handling themselves that it was more of a "one time novelty", not something they wear often, so I don't know I want to count that is a "sighting in the wild"...

... but I'll give it an honorable mention tho....

[STEVIE]

Today, Aberdeen around 12:00 outside the railway station.
A really cool looking guy in a silky skirt looking garment. I say this because he did not appear to be a European. In my ignorance I don't know if this could have been part of a national costume. Still that was a look and so good for the weather!
Steve.