Funky rockabilly?

• Dress: Maurices
• Belt: Maurices (came with the dress)
• Socks: Target
• Shoes: Converse via Target (men's department, buy)

My wife and I had some disagreement over this outfit. My wife liked it less than I did, but I wasn't 100% happy with it either, however it's growing on me over time. I actually almost didn't post it, but its always fun to see what everyone else thinks! I wish this separates instead of a dress as well, but I do think its still fun as it is. Normally I also would have worn shoes with a heel, but I recently bought these sneakers, and I really wanted to pair them with a skirt or a dress. (Edit: eek is an awesome blogger who occasionally makes great use of Converse sneakers in her outfits, and I I realized I omitted a link to her blog!)

I also have a question to answer today, the awesome Genevieve from sandbox romance asked: Just out of curiosity, do you ever experiment with wearing more "gender neutral" clothing in public? I have to confess; I have no idea what that would mean for men!

I love to do small experiments with the clothes I'm willing to wear in public, and over time, I have slowly expanded the list of things I'm comfortable wearing. Most of those items are clothes labeled for women though. However, the first image that jumps to mind when thinking about "gender neutral" clothing are some of those horrible (and not so horrible) grade B sci-fi movies where everyone is wearing muted pastel colored jumpsuits. In all fairness, there are some fashion forward sci-fi movies like The Fifth Element (er, but then again how many sci-fi movies can get Jean-Paul Gaultier to design their costumes?)

Thankfully this is a blog post, not a research paper, so I can do some vacuous uncited handwaving :). I recall reading several writers who have pointed out that "unisex" styling almost always defaults to "masculine" styles, and is almost always "functional" (in contrast to "stylish"). When I try to think of "feminine" unisex styles its difficult. For instance, I guess the closest thing to a gender neutral "skirt" that comes to mind is a Utilikilt. However, I don't own one, and where I live I have the vague feeling a Utilikilt might draw more attention than "simple" crossdressing. (Interestingly, I do know some male hikers that prefer kilts to other lower body garments.) Historically, leggings, tunics, and togas all seem to have been fairly gender neutral at some point, and even high heels were once worn by males. Well, actually I suppose toga's still sometimes count as "gender neutral" party wear on college campuses.

In discussing some of this with friends who live in more metropolitan areas, I am aware that its more common and acceptable to see guys wearing skinny jeans, deeper V-necks, and other items that would be labeled more "feminine". Certainly some visions of "gender neutral" seem to be more androgynous, in contrast to more "masculine" versions. I also think its interesting to think about the role of homophobia plays for some males in deciding whether certain articles of clothing are too "feminine".

Some of the things I have incorporated into my daily rotation include women's jeans from a medium to a dark wash. Most of them are boot cut, although a couple of pairs have more flare. All the jeans are more fitted through the thigh though. I also have some women's oxfords and women's sneakers I wear on a regular basis out and about. My hoodie is from the women's department, and it has more fitted sleeves and a double zipper. My gloves (coming soon in a post!) and my new winter coat are from the women's department. I don't know if any of this counts as "gender neutral" though. I would like to incorporate more items into my daily wear though, but I admit it, I get really self conscious the more things I wear out. In my ideal world though, I would want to wear everything I post on this blog out, and it count as "gender neutral".

As always, I love answering questions, so feel free to ask away in comments or via email, and I already have another question from blog buddy Pamela to answer in my next post! (And I always tag posts like this with q and a.) Of course my amazing wife took the pictures for today's post.