The Gothic Man Skirt
A few years ago, my friend dated this boy (let’s call him Wayne) who was a friend of my best friend. Both of them had common interests-such as goth music and goth clothes. Goth was basically their world. The rest of our friendship group became friends with him, and I particularly got on well with him for a while. That was until I sacked him from the club I ran.
Needless to say, they broke up. My best friend then told my friends and me a short time later that Wayne was going to buy a man skirt to go to a party. At the time, we laughed and laughed. A man wearing a skirt!? Kilts (don’t know why though as they are also flared), Kimonos and Dashikis were totally acceptable but somehow, the idea of a (quite possibly short) Western skirt on a man was abolutely hilarious.
The idea behind a woman wearing a skirt is so that they can emphasise an hourglass figure-hence why skirts tend to ‘flare outwards’. However, a man should emphasise their figure of hardness and be of a triangular shape. Therefore, it completely defeats the whole point of looking ‘masculine’ if a man is wearing a skirt.
Although, having said that-should women not wear trousers? The argument behind women wearing trousers is that they need to seem ‘masculine’ to achieve power. This may sound sexist, to imply that women are not powerful being feminine, but in my opinion it is history that has made it that way. To add, trousers are generally quite practical for most situations-you can’t exactly go rock climbing in a skirt, can you?
Despite our gay laughter (pun not intended), man skirts have become a fashion staple of the fashion world. It’s not quite caught on in reality, but who knows-man skirts going from catwalk to high street?
Personally, I really hope not. The man thong is bad enough (first discovered via huge shop front diplay of Tesco Value Pants Department at Christmas time)!
Useful Links:
- Heavy Red Goth Shop-Man Skirt
- POPSEOUL!-Korean Fashion Blog-Paran Boy Band in Skirts
- Skirt Praising Website
You are handsome, but we can’t both get married in skirts-only I can!
I don’t know about “man skirts”, but modern style kilts certainly have started to catch on in the past few years. I am told Utilikilts now sells almost 20,000 a year, and they are probably only half the market for utility type kilts.
Also, as far as fashion, I don’t think its the flaring of the kilt. Women really, really, seem to like guys legs in kilts, and I do suppose that they emphasise the calf. Never to be discounted, as well, is the comfort factor. Until you have worn a kilt a few days in a row, and then trousers of some form, you can never really appreaciate how horribly they cramp the groin.
By: Kilted Thebes on September 24, 2007
at 12:18 am
I think choice is a good thing. Males should be able to decide for themselves what they want to wear. some of the kilts/skirts, or whatever, are very masculine. Males can be expressive in their choice of clothes. I do NOT think it decreases their masculinity in any way. Way to go, guys!
By: Laurie on May 8, 2008
at 5:23 am
hey man skirts (or what ever the hell they’re called) are cool i have 3 skirts and i wear them over my jeans. kilts rock as well but i hav’nt got one yet but i’m planning to. bodices and corsets should come out for men it would look good with a skirt. socity sucks saying that men can’t wear skirts women wear jeans so why not?
By: Travis on June 6, 2008
at 6:22 pm
Skirts for men is a great idea. I wear skirts in public and I love them, they are so comfortable. I have even worn dresses in public. I’m not gay and I’m not trying to look like a woman, I’m going for comfort. I decided that I’m not going to wait for society to accept it. Other men reading this, we have got the freedom right now to wear skirts or anything else we want to wear, all we have to do is just do it and not care what other people thinks.
By: Terry on June 19, 2008
at 1:52 am
Sorry, but man used to wear skirts in the olden times. Do you like… know the history? I pity Wayne. We should not be restricted on what we wear.
By: Amber on July 8, 2008
at 4:45 am
To Amber-
Well I did refer to Japanese and Scottish skirt-like garments for men that do have very old historical links, so of course I know that men wore skirts in the pass long before trousers were invented, a fairly recent invention might I add. Your argument of history is weak-not all things in the past or things that were once ‘traditional’ are better than what we have today and vice versa.
However, my personal preference is that man skirts are not flattering to the typical male figure, as I stated at the end. If men want to wear skirts, fine-I just find it unattractive.
Thanks for reading-
LTZ xxx
By: ltz888 on August 4, 2008
at 6:52 pm
[...] other modern women’s property, such as concealers, perfume, man skirts and various other items, men have now decided to use their tights too. What on Earth made them [...]
By: (Wo)MAN Tights « Internet Ramblings-The Weird and Wonderful on August 4, 2008
at 7:33 pm
I am sorry LTZ, but you have it all wrong. As woman, you have no idea the discomfort men have to endure wearing trousers. A man’s anatomy is suited to a skirt, while a woman’s can be quite comfortably accommodated in trousers. There is NO SINGLE VALID reason that men should not wear skirts. It always boils down to the very lame “it’s just not the done thing”.
And as for my personal preference – I don’t like woman in jeans, but I will never ridicule them for there fashion choices. If woman want to wear jeans, fine – I just find it unattractive.
By: SkirtWearingMan on September 17, 2008
at 12:35 pm
I think your forgetting the biggest key factor here in goth. Goth is a lifestyle, not a fashion and just in case you may not know- emo and goth are worlds apart. Emo is the “poser goth” that you have to afford to be- goth is alteration, lifestyle, shock and rebellion. When a goth wakes up in the morning he/she doesn’t think of whats in fashion, whats fashionable looking, or what anyone is going to think or have to say about the way they look. We outright just don’t give a fuck and we do what we do for any and all reasons, weather it be to shock, to piss off the conservative, to express- we do it least of all for fucking fashion. The whole point really of goth is to ignore the cattle of all that is “in” and all that is fashion. Before you ever laugh again here’s a little tidbit for you; a gothic man wearing a skirt was such a good idea that it shocked millions upon millions of people worldwide when a man named marilyn manson first came out into the public eye, dressed in a corset, nylons and a skirt, looking like some transvestite from hell.- because of it he’s a multimillionaire with more money than you’ll ever see in your lifetime. A gothic man wearing a skirt who people laughed off as absurd is not only ultimately rich as hell for it, but also a trend setter amongst goths and horror movies and has changed more lives, has the power to bring people out of more religions and has more followers than you can imagine. All because he came out in a skirt looking weird as all hell to the point of being the biggest attention grabber in rock history. So it really pays to be unforgettable, which is what a man wearing a skirt is, which is what a goth is. There was a blind study done over the years- when holding up a photo of marilyn manson and then a photo of jesus %87 of people in the united states recognized Marilyn manson’s photo right away but when it came to the historical painting photo of jesus, they didn’t have a clue. Being recognized more than God is a power not to be laughed at, wouldn’t you say, Miss forgettable come and go fashion? Your fashion and mainstream ultimate crap comes and goes and will be forgotten in all but a matter of a month or less, so for future reference it may do good to remember that goth doesn’t have a damn thing to do with fashion and a man wearing a skirt isn’t as ridiculous as you and people like your britney spears- who was said is “as deep as a bird bath”- by the leader of Rolling Stones, may think.
By: Angelis on December 19, 2008
at 11:41 am
Hello,
I’m a man who wears skirts and you can visit my informations website about skirts for men and men wearing skirts : http://men.jupe-skirt.info
See you soon.
Jérôme
By: jeromehej on April 18, 2009
at 6:51 am
Itz888 – Reading your comment I only have one question: How could you come to this “opinion”?
In my understanding it is necessary to know all background information as possible, in this case it includes male body-shape, history of fashion and history of clothes.
After searching all this you would find that man’s skirts is the oldest kind of clothing for men, even women started wearing skirts in the late 18th century because they had to wear long dresses all the time. If you would argue really correct you have to say that women adopted the skirt from men – i.e. skirts in Africa, where women tend to use skirts much earlier because they did not have to cover their breasts.
Clearly summarized: The skirt is a male garment, but women and fashion designers made them to womens! When men wearing skirts today it is nothing less than their right way to dress when thinking about comfort, health and practicability. What else could be more important in everybody’s life than these???
By: mara on October 1, 2009
at 7:55 pm