Walkin' Round in Women's Underwear

Finding Ritual wear in all the odd places.….

By Mykel

Okay, I’m coming out of the closet and admitting that I do NOT wear women’s underwear.  I wear pretty much everything else made for women.  Boots, gypsy pantaloons, over-shirt jackets, tee shirts, sweaters and most anything else that catches my fancy and looks like my style.  What’s my style, you query?  It’s dressing like a pirate on Talk Like a Pirate Day or wearing a witchy top hat and cape to a walk through a corn maze or a Japanese style jacket to a planning meeting.  Comfortable is the plan.  Eye catching is just pure fun.

After years of struggling to fit into Levis, Jordache, Dockers, Lee’s, and Wranglers, I’ve given up trying.  I don’t have a particularity-misshapen body, but most men’s trousers are not made for my male torso.  Waist’s too low, zippers aren’t long enough, and inseams don’t always give enough wriggle room, if you know what I mean.

Sometime way back in olden days, I was preparing to attend a Samhain gathering at a semi-public Ritual and was looking in my closet for something to wear that would blend with the season.  Not much in it except standard collared shirts, slacks and an old US Marine uniform.  I'm a born procrastinator, so with only a week until the Ritual, I had little time to find something to wear.  Living here in Santa Cruz exposes one to many different cultural dress styles, so I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of people dress like they were going to a Halloween party all year round.  Where do they get those clothes, I wondered. 

Off I went in search of something to wear.  Shopping for clothing had never been one of my favorite things to do - especially trying on trousers that never fit.  Talking a stroll down Pacific Avenue with an eye towards stores that might have something for me, I happened across Lily Wong’s.  Perusing the clothing racks I found that the men’s section consisted of a half dozen shirts from India made of Yak wool and a pattern reminiscent of a Mississippi chain gang outfit only with thin vertical stripes.  Next to the men’s section was a rack of what used to be called Muumuus.  The colors and patterns were of a definite African motif and not really what could be considered Ritual wear.  At least not northern European style of ritual, and it’s always a bit chilly for thin tropical wear during November in Santa Cruz.  Proceeding on I came upon Camouflage, which was a small little corner store with clothing for a different type of ritual.  More like Beltane than Samhain. 

There was always the option of wearing warm up suits or sweats for comfort, but where is the Ritual style in such garments?  The higher end stores such a Big 5, have round racks of sleek and shiny plastic warm up suits with stripes running down the legs, hanging in tandem with woolly sweat shirt and pants that look for all the world like they were made from tennis ball cover material

I ended up at Goodwill and the good folks there had opened up their first year of selling Halloween costumes.  Only a couple of racks of ready made Power Ranger and Princess Fairy for the wee folks and another of old prom dresses and wedding outfits.  On the back row were two tuxedo jackets.   One of them, a set of tuxedo tails and it fit!  Aha!  You’re thinking to yourself, tuxedo?  Samhain?  Well, in those days, I hadn’t separated All Hallows eve from Samhain in my Muggle brain and death was a dress up affair.  Remember the old saying “I wouldn’t be caught dead in a tuxedo”? But I digress.

Mr First Nighter

With a tuxedo jacket of tails in hand, I began looking for all the other items that go with it, such as shirt, tie, cummerbund, and the most important part, trousers.  They were found at a Salvation Army store in San Jose.  With my first costume, I attended the Ritual and was surprised to find myself comfortable and at ease dressed as I was, but not as finely attired as the experienced members of the Ritual crew.  I asked where they got the clothing they wore and most cited their sewing machine.  Oh how I wish I’d taken Home Ec instead of Auto shop!

Women have so much more fun clothing than men do, so I started haunting the Thrift stores and trying to find something that was more like what I saw others wearing.  I found that I could wear women’s sizes in the gypsy or harem style pants, size 10 boot and pretty much anything drappy as a top.  As time went on, the Thrift shops began carrying more costumes and I discovered costume shops.  Unfortunately most are all on the other side of the mountain but well worth the drive if one is looking for that one special item.  Debbie Lyn’s closet in Sunnyvale and Natasha’s Attic in San Jose began to carry more and more clothing designed for Renaissance role playing and began getting more and more of my costuming money.  Cloaks, robes, frilly fronted shirts with ruffles on the cuffs, black leather pants.  Before long, my closet held more costuming items than street clothes.

You too can get rid of uncomfortable wear by wearing your Ritual style clothing more often and if you don’t have enough, check out the Web under costumes.  Let your imagination take you to as many sites as you have time to visit and don’t forget to physically go to Debbie Lyn's or Teinda Ho in Berkeley.  Also the leather stores in San Francisco have lots of really neat outfits, but leather is, well, you know, usually worn in not so public rituals.

Costuming makes it easier to bring out another part of ourselves, and Rituals give us perfect opportunities to do it in a safe and accepting place.  Once one is secure in their self-image of whatever character they may be presenting, going out into the public arena dressed ritually becomes the next step.  I know of at least three people that dress that way.

I would like to mention the use of feathers and bells and bobbles and whatever to customize found clothing, but that would be a whole other article and I have some shopping to do.  I have a reputation to live up to now; and I have fun doing it without wearing women’s underwear.

PS:  Since I wrote this about 12 years or so ago, more and more stores carry fun costumey wear.  Moon Zoom has two stores with one here in Santa Cruz, the other in San Jose.  Goodwill and Salvation Army must have a warehouse full of costumes that they stock in their stores about 3 week prior to Halloween.  The early bird gets the worm.  Also, the Steampunk phenomenon has opened up a whole new line of clothing from the Victorian era, corsets, top hats, frock coats, buttoned shoes and cowboy wear.  The Renaissance Faires have added to the amount of costumes available too.

* From the song by Bob Rivers, "Walkin' Round in Women's Underwear."