Men in Skirts

Andrew Bolton's BRAVEHEARTS: MEN IN SKIRTS is an over sized fashion book filled with color and black & white pictures of men in everything from skirts to sarongs. It provides some detail about the history of men wearing skirts from different cultures and throughout time. It covers all forms of skirts from kilts to sarongs to kimonos to straight skirts and robes. And it shows many designers who have been pushing the envelope like Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, Cavalli, Thierry Mugler etc. No only are some of the pictures from the past, like the 60s and 70s, but many are from the 90s and 2000s, so they are pretty current. The looks are very cool and surprisingly some are very masculine. Not easy to pull off when the skirt qualifies as a "mini" if it were on a woman. I recommend the book to all those interested in fashion and for those who go against the grain.

The men in skirts theme is one long overdue. I hope Bolton did all right in $$ with this one as that would encourage other writers to address this same theme. Any folks that read this and wonder about the subject could visit www.tom's cafe.org to join skirt wearing men or read their posts from around the world. As the women have taken over nearly every clothing item traditionally male as their own, why don't men do the same? At least with skirts/dresses? Both skirts and dresses are far better suited for male plumbing much better than they are for female plumbing of lack of it. Pants work perfectly on a female so I'm not surprised that they have taken them over. A sharp cloth edge in a mans genitalia hurts, but no such problem exists for a woman. After all, few men today ride horses and therefore don't need to wear bifurcated clothing at all unless they are on a Motorcycle.

re: bravehearts/men in skirts - andrew boltoni've just received my copy of bravehearts/men in skirts - believing myself to be one of the first to do so - prior to it's appearance on bookshelves.the format - although interesting is an awkward one that does not quite fit most bookshelves.the contents and photographs are well presented although i would have liked to have seen many more - specifically showing the male skirt as it's worn by many ethnic cultures the world over.the first set of ommissions were those of many east europeasn countries that wear skirts in various forms - from the greek, turk and syrian honour guards along with the dresses worn by the swirling dervishes - followers of sufiism.west africa alone has many differing designs - based on religion, culture and status with just as many differeng names. throughout the rest of africa many more different versions - mostly traditionally african - depending upon ethnicity can be found. we cannot discount the fearsome zulu impi (warriors) in their antelope or monkey hide skirts. again,more colourful ones depected royalty. many of these are intrinsic to their (african's) existence - long before the days of colonialism and finer cloth options. it was largely due to the arab merchamts that various forms of islamic dress made it's mark upon mombassa, dar-es-salaam zanzibar and northern moçambique.even within india do we find many differing styles - many designs and colours based upon status. the sarongs of nepal, tibet, thailand, burma/mayanar, indonsesia and malaysia too have their own characteristics.what about the indigenous peoples from the world over, viz. polynesian islanders; the maori, fiji, samoa, borneo and hawaii to name but a few? it is not enough to merely mention them but share their views on westerners co-opting their national dress and treating it as mere fashion fads.the origin of the kilt too is misleading, as it is believed to have been brought down by the vikings who had their own name for it. contrary to popular belief, it was the english who first took it on - later to be heralded by the scots as their national form of dress. today many of them consider all other kilt wearers throughout the british isles as possuers ...herein lies another omission, that being the kilt is held in equal reverence in both wales and ireland - not only by english royalty such as king george and the prince of wales as so many erroniously assume.yes indeed, i would like to se an updated - expanded version od this fine publication in two to five years from now.owen r. greenland - of welsh extractionaka sharif - associated with indians by religionaka mshengu - born and raised in kwazulu-natal, south africa; connected to africa and it's people by cutural and political affiliation