I can't wear skirts or dresses any more. Why?

[AtlantisLegoDuplicates]

This has crept up on me. I used to be a skirts and dresses person but gradually have become a jeans person...I don't know why, but suddenly looking at all these gorgeous, unworn frocks in my wardrobe I am almost physically repulsed by the idea of putting one on.

There is something going on and I don't understand it - I am 36, slim, tallish, and finally have the long hair I feel goes best with that feminine look, but just can't bring myself to do it.

What is wrong with me? Am I going to have to give them all away?

are you at home? Wear one round the house today, maybe it feels less weird than you think?

just go for it! Try them on, wonder around the house wearing them and see how you feel.

My DD is always asking me to wear a dress - instead of jeans.

yes I am at home. It probably would feel less weird, but I tried one the other day, just a summer skirt, and somehow it made me feel vulnerable - as though I was being watched and laughed at or something.

It's really freaky.
I'm certain it is something psychological going on...maybe from when I was a child?

It's as though I become more like a little girl or something, in my mind.

Also, having no one else, I mean no DH etc, it's as though nobody takes the 'strong' role and therefore I am dressing as a woman for nobody's benefit...does that sound crazy? Like, if I had a DH, someonewould already be in a male role - and I might complement that by being more feminine - but as I am, it's as though I am trying to be the female half of nothing.

So I guess makes me feel like the other role is then laid open, to basically any bloke passing by -

and something in me doesn't want to appear attractive in that way, ie feminely attractive, to random strangers.

I would rather be attractive in how I am inside, so it feels safer to dress in trousers.

I feelvery strong in a skirt usually, if it is a swishy one, I like the swish

If it is a straight one (stretchy, knee-high job) I feel like my mother - sort of grown up

only a couple of months in the year here where I feel in the least inclined to wear a skirt because it is so cold IYSWIM.

I think a skirt can be strong too. Trousers, jeans etc can reveal more than a skirt if you think about it, outlines your whole form

Really? I never feel strong in a skirt. It's interesting how differently we all feel about clothes.

I have even begun to look at other women in skirts and think 'why do you wear that?'! It's tres bizarre.

I hope it isn't just me, am beginning to think I might need some counselling

See nwow I am starting to feel scared of wearing trousers, too.

I am going to end up never leaving the house.

lol

get out the most femininely attractive of your dresses/skirts and put it on

put on some shoes that underline that whole look

swish about your home like a Queen Bee stalking with great strong steps.

tell me if you feel weird

you have ishoos

if you're giving up trousers and skirts, you really are in trouble girl!

lol

get a skirt on, now

I think you feel like this because you've bene wearing trousers/jeans for so long. Don't overthink it, it's happened to me too. I used to wear dresses/skirts all the time and then became a jeans/trousers person and now I feel a little odd in a skirt,but persevere!! I wore one the other day when it was v hot and I felt weird for the first 30 mins and then I felt alright.

typos-sorry!

I live in jeans/trousers too - but just brought a couple of dresses this weekend. They feel so different on - I think for me that I am so used to the feel of a waistband (from trousers) - it gives a sense of security & strength around the core of our body. Take that away by putting on a dress and it feels very strange indeed - like there is a vulnerability about being all floaty in the midriff.

I agree with the poster - just wear a dress around the home for a day or 2 - it does feel weird, but you will soon adapt back to the dress again.

I am loving my new dresses and feel so feminime & lovely in them. Great to be back in touch with that long lost part of me.

Oh gawd. I just can't do it! I am going to feel all floaty and wafty and silly.

The girl in me has vanished. See it's paradoxical, I have no objection to having long wavy (messy) hair, or having my arse outlined in a pair of jeans. that sort of feminine I can do.

But if I go to clean out the chickens or change the battery on the motorbike wearing a skirt I am going to get messy anyway.

I do wonder if I will get asked out more thoguh, if I start to look like an actual girl.

do you want to be asked out or not?

I think a lot of men find women with a nice figure in jeans and with long wavy hair attractive, every bit as attractive as a woman in a skirt tbh

Very Good Question

Yes, I do, but only by someone who already knows me iyswim, not just anyone. I want it to be for the right reasons, not just cos I hve a skirt on or some jewellery etc (which I also cannot wear)

I will go and look at the dresses

I might try one on

This is a bit silly really isn't it. I thought there would be loads of us who found it uncomfortable. There must be a reason.

I sort of see where you are coming from Atlantis.
i am not a girly-girl (pathaologicllay allergic to pink and fluffy and beribboned things).
Yet I have long hair, wear some make up and like to feel attractive. But not 'aimed' at men,in a sexual way IYSWIM. More from an aethetics point of view.
And I love flowers. I do! Just not on my clothes.
When I wear a skirt or dress (which i do for work sometimes) I always feel like it will blow up in the wind and people will see my knickers or i will tuck the skirt into my knickers by mistake. i am always tugging and tweaking. it does definitely make me feel more vulnerable.

I am an ex-biker, and tbh, I always felt at my sexiest when I was dressed really scruffy and grungy but knowing my hair and face looked nice....sort of tough and independent but with a suggestion of frailty. Like Sarah connor in The Terminator. I was slim but athletic with very strong upper arms.
I am too old to get away with that now though.

I can't wear skirts or dresses either...
I always feel as if I am 'dressed up' in them and going to a wedding.
I look at women in dresses and skirts and think "Well YOU can't be doing anything remotely practical today.."

I aslo just find the COLD, so like someone else said, there are only about 5 days a yera hot enough to wear them.

I also work from home, so there is NO POINT putting a dress on to sit at my desk.

I also have bad feet for skirts and dresses - don't do heels, so look frumpy.

I'm with you sister....

its not silly, OP , its how you feel. Most of us have some kind of isshoo about who we are, how we express ourselves as women, our "image" etc

if you read the Style and beauty threads you will see that LOADS are mumsnetters are obsessed by things like the right shade of nailpolish /getting a brazilian befroe childbirth/wearing certain make up brands etc. These things all seem ludicrous to me but we all have our hang ups..........

you are not as silly as the poster who was worried about giving birth as her Dp had never seen her without make up

I am with you Atlantis. They make me feel fradulent and peculiar. Nasty things. And jewellery, I just have a plain watch and very occasionally wear earrings.

I am someone who only wears trousers (well, maybe once every 3 years a skirt/dress), but I am feminine, def not girly.
I feel completely naked when wearing a skirt, esp in summer when no tights on either, and hate it. Exposed is the right word, it unnerves me, makes me uneasy.
It's nothing to do with size/shape- I am pretty petite (in all dimensions), though like whippet I feel the cold an awful lot, so even being sockless is a miracle (was wearing a cardi yesterday!)
I have seen your pics (prev profile) and you look gorgeous in dresses- v feminine and stylish, so nothing to fear there
Just trying to say I think its normal for some people to feel like this!