Style Guide

[Mindermast]

I am sorry, this is no style guide yet. I hope, it will become one. There are many discussions on this forum and other places, especially about how far a man can go with ambigous styles and the like, I don't want that. I would like an open and informative discussion about skirts for average men who could be encountered next door, in a pub, cinema, at work or anywhere else - men that are used to blend in and leave innovative fashion ideas to others. For this purpose, lets assume, skirts were official men's wear, but sold "burger-style", i.e. you would have to go through a lot of options and create your "personal product". I think, this is close enough to the real situation, where lots of different skirts are available, but most of them intended to be worn by women.

Possible topics:

- suitable skirts for various body shapes, and what to wear with that
- colours
- decoration
- fabrics
- additional leg wear
- foot wear
- special "techniques" when wearing skirts - such as "how to use the loo" or "playing sitar in a skirt" (almost impossible in a narrow skirt)
- dos
- don'ts

I don't know where to start, and I am no expert at all. So I don't mind, if someone else goes ahead.

And please keep in mind, average men, no dreaming about what should be possible, no ideology, no resent for how things are today. And let's stick with skirts only as new clothes, no high-heels, tights, or the like, no "freestyle fashion".

PS: Feel free to use my avatar as an example, even if you think, it is an example for bad style.

[nicothoe]

While the first skirts I bought were solid black in color, I now have skirts of all colors - brown, red, green, blue, white, and yes, even pink. Some of the skirts are patterned, and I have a favorite wrap skirt with a black, red, and orange fire motif . (Ahh, it's perfect for the full-moon fire-jam that occurs in Chicago during the summer months. )

Just as a I refuse to limit my clothing to pants, I see no reason to limit my choice in colors when it comes to skirts. However, finding the skirt is the easy part. The more colorful and patterned the skirt, the harder it is to find a suitable top/shirt/tshirt. If all else fails, I simply settle for a white tshirt. Yeah, white tshirts can go with anything.

The same can be said for shoes. I choose not wear pantyhose, not do I wear women's shoes or heels. But finding the right shoe to go with a skirt can be tricky. At the moment, with it being winter, I wear leather boots, but in summer I switch to various colorful canvas shoes.

One thing I can say though, since wearing skirts, I find myself looking more closely at the other parts of my wardrobe, and how I can better coordinate everything.

[crfriend]

Wow! You have set yourself up for one heck of a task there, sir. "Style guides" exist for women, but from what I'm given to understand no two necessarily agree on anything, not to mention all things. There are just so many variables to deal with.

Colour might be among the easiest, because some colours work better with some skin-tones than others, so that might be a good place to start -- unless you happen to have a favourite color that doesn't quite "go" with your complexion but you can still "pull it off" anyway. Neutrals -- blacks, whites, greys, and, sometimes browns -- pretty much go with everything; I find I can do a lot of reds, but with reds one needs to be careful about the hues in use if one is mixing reds; blue comes in myriad shades once one outgrows denim and mixes well with yellow (interestingly, an opposite on the colour-wheel); green, if one can wear it and not look sickly, can be a win as well. Then there are the desaturated versions called pastels that guys are supposed to eschew, but can work well in context amongst other pieces.

As far as fabrics go, I put no boundaries there (save that I personally do not like denim) and am a big proponent of brocades, velvets and satins (the so-called "rich fabrics"). Cotton can work well so long as your body chemistry isn't like mine (cotton dissolves on me forcing me into synthetics), and a light cotton "poet's shirt" is tough to beat for comfort and archaic/romantic style (satin for that, too). Too, I am not opposed to lace trim, but it's easy to go overboard and wind up looking like you're in costume rather than in regular clothes.

Shoes are a pain in the backside, and if anybody has got clues in this regard that won't hobble the wearer or make him permanently lame, pipe up! I wear my standard men's dress shoes because that's what I've always worn and they actually look reasonably good because they don't look like coal-scuttles. Other styles might, however, work better.

We can debate legwear until the cows have not only come home, but led to slaughter as well. I regard it as an viable option, in opaque and sheer styles, and also in colours. However, one needs to be careful with colour if one is coordinating; I got the riot-act read to me one time by Sapphire because I botched it pretty badly due to bad lighting as I was getting dressed. (If in doubt, look at the proposed pairing in daylight; incandescent, especially dim incandescent, will not do.)

To finish this off -- and the reader should bear in mind that I am not trashing the idea here -- I'd just say that the number of permutations possible are so numerous that trying to call each and every one of them out in any sort of "guide" will likely be hideously difficult. Too, the ultimate arbiter is how you think you look in what you put together -- you must find a look that suits your own aesthetic and sensibilities; what looks good on me may not look good on you, or vice-versa. Furthermore, in the absence of any sort of "rules", we gain the advantage in not being hide-bound; we should not only feel free to experiment, we should experiment!

[JohnH]

My experience with heels is that I can walk normally without effort up to about 2 3/4 inches. I will not go above 4 inches, and that takes a little practice to wear. Even at 4 inches I don't see any problems of messing up my feet. Any higher than that the discomfort outweighs the appearance. I either go for solid shoes or sandals, not open toed pumps. Block and wedge heels are easier to walk in than stilettos since stilettos are rather flexible and wobbly.

If you don't think men can wear heels there is http://www.hhplace.org where there are sections specifically for women, men, and both. The men do identify themselves as males and use masculine pronouns at that website.

In my opinion long informal house dresses look OK with men's shoes, but formal dresses that are knee length need something lighter looking such as heels. I'm wearing suede 2 1/2 inch heels with the black velvet dress shown in my avatar.

My wife on the other hand does not go over 1 inch of heel height, that is very seldom that she gets that high. There is no way she could wear the heel heights that I can wear.

John

[Mindermast]

Not a style guide either, but this website provides some good ideas:

http://www.qccd.org/skirts.html

[Since1982]

They might have changed something in the last 10 years on that site...then again, maybe not..That was probably one of the first sites Tom ever posted on his site. (Tom, of Tom's Cafe, the forerunner of Bob's SkirtCafe and SkirtCafe, started this site in 2003.) I joined in 2004. It's still a good site for newbies to this site.