Alex in a jeans skirt and heels
April 28, 2024

For the past four years, I have been working at home full-time. Even though I wore skirts and heels before I transitioned to working remotely, not having to go into the office every day has allowed me to explore my unconventional fashion choices to an extent that wasn’t possible before.

This is the story of how I went from going into the office every day owning only one skirt and one pair of heels to working at home full-time and owning a closet full of gender-non-conforming clothes.

Backstory

Ever since 2020 when Corona shut everything down in Germany, I have been working at home. My job at the time required me to go into the office every day which was still the norm, but as soon as one of my coworkers tested positive, the managers shut down the office and we were required to work from home.

By the time the office opened back up, the CEO and other members of upper management had discovered the joys of working from home and decided that instead of mandating everyone to come back into the office, they would just downsize the office and we could stay working at home.

At the time, I owned a single black skater skirt. It was something I had had for years and wore frequently when no one else was home on the weekends and in the evenings. At the time, my wife didn’t know about it. Nor did she know about the pair of heeled boots I had buried in the back of the closet in my office at home.

There are photos of each at the bottom of this post.

Working at Home

So what did working at home full-time change for me? It meant that I didn’t have to dress for an office environment which is essentially where you are required to dress for your managers rather than yourself. It gave me the freedom to experiment with my style more than I had been able to up to that point because I could now do it every day.

While we still had video conferences with our cameras on, I could easily experiment with skirts and heels since we all know that it just has to be business up top. Of course, I tried dresses too, but I could cover the top part with sweaters or jackets for meetings if necessary.

Because I wanted to experiment more, I naturally started buying more skirts and heels. As my style developed, I became more confident with it which meant I eventually developed the confidence to tell my wife about it. She’s already written about how that went.

The Present

Other than when I have to occasionally go into the office or visit a customer, I still work at home full-time. This means I wear skirts pretty much every day unless there is a rare day that I just don’t feel like it.

Some of my teammates know about it and others don’t. We still have video conferences every day and I don’t hide anything. If I need to get up, then I do and they see I’m wearing a skirt on camera. So far, there has been only one comment. After standing up to close the window next to my desk, one of my teammates asked if I was wearing a skirt. I confirmed that I was and he just said, “Ahh, ok.” That was the end of the discussion.

Conclusion

The whole point of this story can really be boiled down to a couple of sentences. It was important for me to have the space and time to develop my own style so that I could gain the confidence to take the next step of sharing it with my wife. Working at home full-time gave me that space.

Having it also helped me solve the conflict occurring in my head at the time. I kept wondering why I, as a man, like skirts and heels. I wondered if something was wrong with me and even began questioning my gender over some silly clothes. Of course, these questions are easy to answer now (nothing is wrong with me and I am definitely a man), but at the beginning of my journey, they were still very prominent in my thoughts.

If it weren’t for being able to work at home full-time, I wouldn’t have the collection of skirts and heels that I have today, I wouldn’t be nearly as confident in wearing them and this blog wouldn’t exist. If it weren’t for Corona and I still had to go into the office every day, I would probably still just have the one skirt and pair of heels.

It’s amazing how a safe space without societal pressure can really give you the potential to be yourself in all facets… even if it is a bit unusual.

Did Corona change anything for you? Did it affect your wearing of gender-non-conforming clothing at all? Let us know in the comments below!

  • The First Skater Skirt I Owned
  • The First Pair of Heeled Boots I Owned
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About the Author

Alex Seifert
In many ways, Alex is a typical man who just so happens to enjoy wearing skirts and high heels. He is married to a wonderful, supportive wife and has a young son. His hobbies include reading, programming, metal music, playing instruments, video games, cars, hiking and a number of other smaller things.

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