Of Sartorialists and Skirts

Today on the Sartorialist, the blog featured pictures of men in skirts and posed the question, "Are we ready to discuss skirt lengths for men?" For me, the answer to this question is a resounding yes. Although I don't like a lot of the hipster culture, mostly because I hate anything that values being ironic over being earnest, I do really enjoy the freedom of androgyny inherent in the trends. I think if men start wearing more traditionally feminine cuts and patterns then maybe the unspoken, underlying rule that men should always look manly would change, which, I hope, could inspire women to stop thinking that fashion is meant to make them look as thin or as pretty as possible. It's not.

I know that most people who read this blog are, well, my family members, and therefore probably think I'm a little crazy in my insistence that yes, men should wear skirts and no, we shouldn't dress to look our prettiest, but consider it for a second. Shouldn't we pick our clothes because we think they're interesting, because we think they feel nice when we're wearing them, because we think they'll fit into our lifestyle? Isn't that, essentially, how these men are dressing? If the men who choose to wear skirts (or tight pants, I think) don't have to constantly worry about looking their handsomest (or most masculine) then why should we feel like we need to look our prettiest or most feminine? So, if men's wearing of skirts, and thus a break in the dichotomy between what is masculine and what is feminine, is what it takes for that sort of thinking to become more mainstream, then I say, yes, let's talk about men wearing skirts.

And if we are discussing men's skirt lengths, I'd say follow the Fall hemlines for women - wear your skirts below the knee but above the ankle. And keep wearing those meggings.

In other non-fashion news, it's been an emotional roller-coaster of basketball. Pitt lost to Xaiver today, and it was just one of the many close games, many in overtime and many resulting in upsets, including Kansas's loss to Northern Iowa. How can you not love March?

xoxo Anna Rae