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1 Jun 2004 By Jane Hall, The Journal Brad Pitt has said he believes his latest blockbuster movie, Troy, will start a trend for fashion-conscious men in skirts - and it seems many women would welcome the idea. ********** Charlton Heston chariot raced in his in Ben Hur, while Kirk Douglas stood-up to the Romans in one in Spartacus. Mel Gibson strode across the heather with one flapping in the wind in Braveheart, and the macho Russell Crowe marched in his in Gladiator. Even the Monty Python team were fond of the habit.
David Beckham is a serial offender, first as he strolled along hand-in-hand with Posh Spice and latterly being paid to do it by Pepsi. And Sting got in on the act at this year's Grammy awards. Now Brad Pitt has joined their ranks - and likes it so much he believes other men should try it. What are we talking about? Men in skirts. Having donned a very fetching short, leather skirt for his latest blockbuster, Troy, Brad is now singing the praises of men `letting the air circulate'. He believes all fashion-conscious males should follow his lead and has said: "Men will be wearing skirts by next summer. That's my prediction and proclamation." Scoff you might, but many men would probably love to swap their trousers for a skirt, especially on a hot summer's day. And it's worth remembering that until about 400 years ago, men wore skirts as a matter of course. There were plenty in The Bible and the Romans and Greeks loved them. That was until someone decided that riding a horse would be much more comfortable in trousers; and, from then on, women were denied the glimpse of a perfectly-formed calf. Of course, in Scotland and Ireland, men have continued to wear skirts, except they prefer to call them kilts. But the influence of Western culture has caused most of the world's men to give up their skirts in favour of trousers. But, perhaps it is time that men fought back. A recent survey conducted in three of America's largest cities - Chicago, New York and Los Angeles - found that one out of five women aged between 21 and 39 would date a man who was wearing a skirt. In fact, a consistent fifth or more of those questioned found this new twist on menswear a turn-on, or, at the very least, tolerable. The idea of men in skirts struck 24pc as either `very acceptable' or `somewhat acceptable'. Nearly 30pc wouldn't faint if the trend took off, and 20.3pc would not lose their cool. So, what made these women so broad-minded? The reasons ranged from the lofty (everyone should be free to wear what they choose) to the practical (skirts are cool and comfortable) to the novelty value (something new). Sex appeal also came into it. Many women liked the fact that skirts show off a man's legs.
But whose legs? Perhaps we should add a rider here. Brad Pitt took a year to make his body into a temple to be admired. However, it's hard to imagine the short leather skirt he wore in Troy would look the same on your average British male office worker. Imagine the scene: You arrange to meet your date at a posh restaurant and he strolls through the door in a leather mini-skirt, his flabby legs looking like a pair of hairy sausages. Oh, the embarrassment. Men, like women, would need to `work at it' if they wanted to be taken seriously in a skirt. But that's not to say men shouldn't wear them - they just need to do it in the right way. As long-time skirt wearer, fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, once said: "Masculinity doesn't come from clothes; it comes from something inside you. Men and women can wear the same clothes and still be men and women." That may be true, but it unfortunately underestimates the lag between our intellectual preparedness for the prospect of a gender revolution and our emotional readiness. For while we are happy to see celebrities wearing skirts because we look at them from a safe distance and they pose no threat to our daily lives, seeing your average man-in-the-street stepping out in a sarong, mini skirt or A-line would be another matter. Skirts question men's sexual identity and, in the process, women's too. Certainly, many women are conspicuously uncharitable when it comes to giving the opposite sex its shot at an androgynous experiment, despite the fact females have been happily wearing trousers for decades. Just recall the outcry of disgust a couple of years ago when Victoria Beckham innocently let slip that husband David liked wearing her knickers? Civilisations may have been built and conquered in skirts, but modern man couldn't manage a day in the office in one. Apparently there was an attempt in the US in 1960 by fashion brand Dorcus to market a He-skirt. It failed miserably. And in 1995 a man lost a case against Hackney Council who had banned him from wearing a skirt to work. But wearing a skirt isn't about cross-dressing, aka Turner Prize-winner Grayson Perry. It is just that some men genuinely feel more comfortable in a skirt - and many others might if they had the courage to try it. But for a man to don a skirt in our modern society would be a risky mission indeed, especially where being masculine gains esteem while to dress as a woman surrenders status. Yet, if men weren't prepared to take a few risks with how they look we would never have had the brocaded dandy, the Teddy Boy, the long-haired platform-loving males of the 1970s or the Mohicaned punk. With men and women already wearing so many of the same fashions in the same materials and patterns, shouldn't skirts be universally accepted? Certainly the 100 or so men who paraded through New York earlier this year in midis, minis and tutus to call for the end of the tyranny of trousers, believe so. Participant Chris Taylor, 27, summed up the argument when he said: "The male bird is always the pretty one, not the female. Why can't the male human being dress with style and colour?" © owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Plc 2004 |
