And When I Must be Clothed...       Although I would rather be nude like this... When I can't, then this is the next best thing But when all else fails, then its shorts, tee shirt and flip flops. There comes a time when even the most ardent nudist has to wear clothes, but depending on the circumstances and location it can be possible to keep the clothing to a minimum. It the weather is at all warm then shorts or swimming costumes are the sort of thing that I resort to. Even when it is necessary to wear trousers, then underpants are really not needed as they severely restrict your freedom. My favourite shorts are light weight running shorts made from thin, almost silk like material. They tend to be so thin, that there are slightly transparent. To make them even more comfortable, I cut out the lining, so all that you are left with is a thin light-weight shell allowing the breeze to pass through, past your unsupported 'private parts'. The unsupported nature of the resultant shorts does mean that the is not much hiding your 'modesty', so you do have to take care when stepping over things or when running, to prevent your 'unsupported bits' from putting in an unwanted 'external' appearance. My swimming trunks are effectively the next best thing to nudity. Obviously given a choice, then I always go to a beach where trunks are not needed anyway. If the situation is unclear whether nudity would be accepted, then on go the trunks to prevent any embarrassment. However they are verging on the absolute minimum, in so far as they carry out the legal necessities by coving the penis, but really do not leave much to the imagination. As with the shorts, I remove the lining to make them more comfortable. My favourite Kiniki trunks are very old and have long lost much of their elasticity. Although they cover my penis, they are now so thin that they show every vein and wrinkle of skin, but they are legal, so they do get worn. I'm sure that you will have seen them elsewhere, but here they are again! Just out of interest, it would be interesting to know how many others have the same attitude to me regarding un-necessary underwear and the delights of wearing shorts and swimwear with the lining removed. If you share my views, or even if you don't, why not drop me an email and have a chat about the subject. I'm never quite clear what the situation is regarding coverage of the bum. In UK law I don't think that there is any requirement to cover it, but even with my disregard for clothing, I tend to keep some of my bum covered so as not to appear too cheeky. There main outings for the trunks are for use as cover-ups when nude walking and we meet textiles. They also get worn on sailing holidays around the marina. Although they are called trunks, they very rarely get wet. On the odd occasion that they do get wet, they go completely transparent! Realising that there are not many years left in my Kiniki's before they completely disintegrate, I have recently started looking round for some replacements. There are a few sites on the internet selling such garments, but I have found it very difficult to find anybody who sells a pair of 'trunks' that have minimal cover at the front and some cover at the rear. The closest that I tend to get generally has more than adequate cover at the front, but with a 'G' string rear. The best sites that I have found are Kiniki, GIYZ Swimear and Skinzwear (if the link fails then look for their style M47). The last two sites have adjustable fronts and backs to their cossies. However if you are looking for something really minimal, then have a look at Koalaswim and Beach & Dance. There are quite a few other good men's swimwear websites around, which are best found by searching for men + swimwear in your favourite search program. Two other good links that do not often appear in search results are Intersparta and Topman. There is no need for the girls to be left out as I knw lots of you enjoy wearing skimpy cossies and showing off your bits. An excellent website for the girls is Bikini.com, but beware, the makers label is almost as big as the cossie! The website also has some quite daring cossies for men also! Even as a nudist, I find it difficult to resist buying some of this minimal 'clothing'. The photos below show some of my more recent purchases. My faitful yellow Kinkis   Studwear's Roman Baithers     Studwear's Micro G Baithers Bikini bottoms are not cut full enough at the back but too full at the front. Suits You design with adjustable front I came to the conclusion that the cossie that offered me best comfortable degree amount of skimpyness was the Roman bathers. I liked the 'Suits You' idea of an adjustable front, but the rear was just a bit too large. So I decided to attack the the tan pair with a pair of sissors to reduce the size of the rear, and also to make the rear adjustable, in a similar fashion to the front. This is the result of my sewing and cutting.  From this ....   To this!  After proving that the trunks could be sucessfully modified, I made the same modifications to the yellow pair. Although the colour 'tan' did seem worth buying at the time, I do prefere yellow. This is a sample of just how the front and 'cut down back' back can be adjusted. On our holiday to Paxos in 2003 the new yellow cossie really got its first serious outing. It was initially worn as a cover up to be used when walking past houses that might be inhabited etc. The degree of coverage was varied depending on whether we actually saw any people or not. However, the more I wore them, the more I became comfortable in them and my confidence grew, as although they were fairly minimal, but when fully extended, they did cover all the essential bits, plus a reasonable proportion of my bum. One example of my increased confidence was on Anti-Paxos, where I was walking as nature intended along a beach. There was a taverva perched high above the beach, which could not be resisted. There were some 200 steps up from the beach providing a direct connection to the taverna. As it was the main access path, I decided to wear the cossie just in case met anybody coming down the steps. We arrived at the taverna in a very hot and sweaty condition. It was deserted and the view across to Paxos was magnificent. There seemed little point of putting on a shirt, so I adjusted it for 'maximum cover', then sat down and ordered two large beers. The photo opportunity was too good to resist. However at this point a small boy emerged from the taverna, who was attracted to us. From his closeness of inspection, his was clearly intrigued by the cossie and its contents. We just smiled, and after a short period he lost interest. While I would not generally wear just them to walk through town, I became quite happy to wear them plus a 'tee' shirt, in town. When sat in a sunny taverna, I would be quite happy to remove to tee shirt and just sit in my cossie. Our favourite 'sun downer' taverna was a very relaxed place, and as the beers slid down it was possible to adjust the cossie 'adjust' to minimise its cover and maximise exposure. I found that it was quite possible to sit in such a way that my virtual nudity was not apparent to others in the taverna (well I don't think so anyway!). In 2008, I fealt that some of my mini cossies were getting a bit tired, so I started to search for some replacements. My design criteria was still the same, i.e. they had to make some effort to cover my bum, but I was not too bothered about how skimpy they were at the front. The material could be as thin as it liked, but not quite 'see through' as they do get worn in public! The ones that I came up with were from an American company called Skinz. The style is called 'Super low cut rio' which they also call M29. This is what they look like in the catalogue. I tend to go for either bright or tan plain colours. I chose their tan colour, which is 7403 in the catalogue, but I'm not sure if they still do that colour. I was somewhat confused by the sizing. To me most Americans are 'large'. I do not consider myself to be large, but according to the sizing chart, I needed a large size, so I too their advice, ordered a large pair, and to my surprise the fit perfectly! It really is quite clever how such a small garmet can cover all this! The material is quite 'clingy' but not see through. As a result, it shows every pimple under the material, so it leave very little to the imagination, but you can not see through the material but is not see through.    The End When I wrote the above section on what style of clothing I wear when I can't be nude, I thought that the idea of wearing skimpy trunks with no lining and short shorts, again with no lining, was a bit extreme, and did not really expect to get much in the way of positive replies. But I was wrong. It appears that there are quite a few out there with similar views. At present I'm getting lots of emails from people who modify their skimpy apparel as I do. I addition to knowing that I'm not the only one, those replying also feel comforted to know that they are not the only people who adopt the style. I'm not tempted to create a separate page on the subject because not even I can justify a 'clothes' section in a 'nudist' webpage! But if you do share my liking for skimpy apparel, then drop me an email and have a chat about it. A Skimpy Outing I was recently staying for a few days in a hotel (on work) that had a good size pool plus a sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. I used the facilities quite a bit. I started off in my red cossie, which are fairly minimal. Although all the other men were in their big baggy trunks, I did not get any adverse reaction, in fact people (men and women) were very friendly. Most of the users were members to the hotel fitness club rather than being hotel guests. I realised that the pool would be textile, although saying that, I did manage a few nude lengths when I was the only person in the pool, but even then I had to be aware of the CCTV cameras. I was keen to discover what the dress code was in the sauna and jacuzzi. The 'instructions to users' just said that appropriate dress shall be worn. As far as I'm concerned, appropriate dress in a sauna steam room or jacuzzi is 'no dress'! I always endeavoured to use the sauna and steam room when I was fairly sure that they were empty, as I did not want to frighten the natives unduly. But once in the sauna or steam room, my cossie would be off so that I could take advantage for the facilities as intended. I could only take the heat for about 10 minutes, but during my various sessions, I was joined by others (male and female) taking advantage of the facilities. With the exception of one person, there no comment regarding my nudity. He quite openly said that he was also a nudist, but never realised that nudity was allowed. I mentioned the rules requiring appropriate dress, and that I had not received any complaints. So he took off his trunks and we both took in the heat as nature intended. There was one young lady (Suzie) who joined me in the sauna. She was obviously not bothered by my nudity, and we sat there chatting. The reason for my stay in the hotel was that I was part of a large team manning a public exhibition for a government agency. It turned out that she was also part of the team and in fact worked for the same company (although she was based in a different office). As part of our professional roles, we saw each other at the exhibition. She mentioned that she enjoyed the pool facilities at the hotel, but she resisted using the expression 'I did not recognise you with your clothes on'. On one occasion I decided to give the yellow cossie an outing. It is paper thin, offers no support and goes transparent when wet. It is only a potential problem when walking between the pool and other facilities, but as the pool was never very busy, I just braved it out! The locker system meant that you had a key, which you could attach to your towel, which you could then hang up around the edge of the pool. So there I was swimming up and down the pool, when I noticed my towel (and key) had disappeared. My immediate thought was that somebody had picked it up by mistake so there was no need to panic, I then realised that the key gave access to my locker which contained money and credit cards etc! Action was required, so I jumped out of the pool and went to the locker room, but fortunately my locker was still locked. I then decide to go to the pool attendant to explain the situation. All this was of course done in my wet limp transparent cossie. The pool attendant was very understanding. She had duplicate keys which I could use if necessary at then end of my session. So I returned to the pool. I was amazed at just how little reaction my cossie caused! Tricks with Velcro On the SOC nude walks it is often necessary to 'cover up quickly'. The normal method is to slip on a pair of shorts. However, this is not necessarily as easy as it sounds especially when on a muddy footpath and trying to do it in a hurry. "There must be an easier way" I thought, and was spurred on by Phil who is an Australian who developed something called a Trangle, which was crotchless 'g' string with a hook attachment at the side. He maintains his website called 'Scrubnud', which describes his nude lifestyle 'down under' and reference to his Trangle. It sounds as if trangles are still available, if you are interested, this is Phil's original advert.    Phil's Trangle Always being inventive and not afraid of having a go with needle and cotton, I decided to apply the idea to a pair of my running shorts which had already had the lining removed. Initially one side was carefully unpicked. Being running shorts, there was an overlap of about 2cm in the material on the side of the leg, which was the obvious place for a Velcro fastening. About 2cm of Velcro was used to make the join. When Velcroed back together, the shorts resembled their original style.    The 'good' side 'unpicked'    The side joined by Velcro The next task was the crotch. Initially they were cut along the seam that joins the front and back of the shorts. Velcro was attached and the two halves joined up with out any problems in appearance. However, the Velcro chaffed, and on subsequent designs the cut was made about 2cm in front of the seam. This moved the Velcro sufficiently far forward to remove the chaffing problem.    The Velcro crutch join When on, they look just like the original garment and I'm quite happy to wear them in normal textile surroundings on SOC walks (pubs etc). When put on and the waist fastened, it is necessary to ensure that the Velcro is securely fastened. The join is quite strong, however failure to secure the Velcro properly could result in the join coming undone, the result of which is instant and totally revealing, much to the potential surprise of the publican and other non-textile customers! It did happen to me at home while developing the design, so I know just how instant the exposure is, but has never happened in the real world! Like many things, the knowledge of knowing that you are only a Velcro rip away from total exposure is part of the fun of wearing them!    Aparently a normal pair of shorts    Un-do the Velcro join at the side    Un-do the crutch joint    And....    Nude again!!