Gender Neutral Clothing

Post Reply New Topic

In the 70's because of the disco fever, a lot of women's tops were leotards. You could wear them under skirts and they wouldn't come untucked when you danced. I had several. My favorite outfit was a purple long sleeve, v neck leotard with ruffles and around the neck and a low cut back, with a black wrap full skirt that came to my knees. I wore it with pantyhose and my black Candie's slip on high heels.

There used to be a trend of ladies changing shoes after work and walking to the bus stop, parking lot, etc in tennis shoes, but I haven't seen that lately. However inappropriate you think the shoes are for the bus stop or walking up the block to get a pastry, they are perfectly appropriate for their job, inside the bank.

I love heels, even though I'm tall. Nothing makes a lady's legs look as good as a pair of heels, and I have killer legs to begin with. I think heels look great with lots of things. I wear them, or used to until I got too lazy to wear them. It takes practice to be comfortable in them, and I'll get back to that eventually, I'm sure. I refuse to be one of those old ladies in ugly flats.

I do like flats to go with lots of things, but they look aweful when paired with something that screams for heels. If nothing else, then kitten heels would work well. But you just can't beat a great pair of stilletto's.

How about bib overalls for androgynous clothing? Remember Alf and Ralph on Green Acres?

Are you a SNL fan? If so, do you remember the skit they used to do about Pat? Pat worked in an office and was androgynous and nobody knew if Pat was male or female, and they were afraid they would be rude if they asked the question. During one skit, Pat was talking about Christmas gifts from parents. Pat mentioned getting clothes from his/her parents that year and everybody said "Oh really?" because they thought it might be a clue, but Pat said "Just the usual, clothes from the Gap" and therefore was no help.

The Gap did have clothes that both guys and girls wore, I remember. I think it was in the 80's too. I remember buying Levi's and button downs there. The Levi's were the same and I always bought boy's Levi's but the button downs for girls were cut differently and the buttons were on a different side I believe.

As for what you are going to wear, I know you like retro like I do. You can do TONS of things with retro and with modern clothes too! You can add a few retro touches to clothes you buy now, and it looks great! I also still have those outfits I mentioned to you a couple years ago that I need to box up and send to you, I think you'll LOVE them! I have a few sites bookmarked that I use that give me good tips on wearing modern clothes but giving them a retro twist. I'm actually really good at putting stuff like that together too.

Have you looked at bowling shirts? Also button down short sleeve print shirts in retro prints are great with khaki's or jeans. I have tons and tons of ideas for you about what you could wear for this. I'd love to discuss ideas for it with you if you want. I love clothes and dressing in a certain style, but because I rarely leave the house and when I do it's only to go to the grocery store or Walmart or the junk store, I never feel that my dressing up is really needed, but I do it anyway most times. I'm thrilled to talk about other people's clothes with them and get a vicarious thrill from them going places, because there aren't any places to go in my town. So if you want me to find and send you the links to the sites, let me know, or if you want some suggestions about putting things together in a retro style, let me know too. And let me know if you still want those outfits, they rock! They are Vintage and dressy, but they are going to be so much fun to wear! Especially the bright Austin Powers looking suit and frilly shirt! Let me know if you still want that stuff.

Was gonna say that "that's what I'm sayin'". Sean Connery would have no choice but to mount a girls' bike if he wore that outfit.
But then I realized that that probably isnt true. Guys in kilts do NOT ride horses side-saddle (like the ladies in the old west had to).

The gendering of children's bikes got started to accomidate the gendering of Victorian clothing (that part of what I said above still goes). But woman not only wore only skirts-they wore long ankle-length skirts. Since a Scottish kilt is much shorter than a Victorian lady's hoop skirt the horizontal bar on a boys' bike wouldnt really interfere. So guys in kilts probably CAN ride boys' bikes (so can twentieth/21st century women for that matter-because ladies now wear short skirts, or pants).

I think that side saddles were far more of a European thing, not an American thing. While there were some in the old west, weren't they rather rare?

I think that most women in the old west would ride a horse drawn cart of one kind or another.

I try to dress as feminine as possible. Due to my under arm sweating and my over all physical appearance I might as well be a man. My self-esteem is crap sometimes.

I haven't wore high heels in ages or a dress for that matter. I'd wear them more often if I went places that aren't the grocery store more often.

I like the girly clothes. I would wear stilettos, except for my ankles won't hang with them any more, so I have to do a platform or wedge if I wear heels. The only problem I have with "girly" clothes is that I can't abide anything the least bit itchy, or things that constrict around my neck. No turtleneck sweaters, and no lace that touches my skin. I like nice soft knits. Other than that, I love bright colors and bold patterns.

When I was a little kid I had to wear my older sisters' (often threadbare and ill-fitting) hand-me-downs. I always looked like a sorry little washed out geek-thing with bad clothes, washed out complexion, stringy, mousy hair and thick glasses. Today I wear what I like- anything from multi-colored leggings, loud floral prints, bright pink, etc.

I think it's kind of funny that one of the ladies at the Y where I go swimming in the mornings started commenting on how I would "look younger" if I didn't wear makeup and didn't cut and dye my hair.

I wear my makeup and hair exactly how I want to, thank you.

She canned the commentary with the quickness when I told her I have an ex-husband who tried to feed me the same line of crap 20+ years ago, and I haven't seen him since.

If you like how you look then run with it.