Perfect Storm

Saturday night, I will attend One Big Event at the Connecticut Convention Center in downtown Hartford. The event benefits the Hartford Gay & Lesbian Heath Collective.

It will be my fourth time attending this event, which includes a cocktail hour, dinner, and dancing to a live band. The photo is me after dressing for the 2010 installment of the event. Last year, the Hartford Courant recorded my appearance with a photo in the print edition of the newspaper!

This is a dress-up affair; men in tuxedos and women in evening gowns and cocktail dresses. I plan to wear the $190 gold metallic brocade sheath cocktail dress that I purchased from Spiegel's Ultimate Outlet store for $10. My shoes will be the Nine West nude platform pumps that I just bought last week. I will wear a gold sequins clutch, but my jewelry accessories are still in the undecided category. I also am not sure how I will wear my hair.

Saturday night turns out to be a "perfect storm."

For some reason, the date of One Big Event was moved from mid-November to Saturday night. Coincidentally, Real Art Ways moved their Odd Ball from mid-March to Saturday night. Fantasia Fair also has their Gala Awards Banquet on Saturday night. And the Red Sox will be playing in the World Series Saturday night.

The Red Sox's World Series appearance was impossible to plan for and I did not go to Fantasia Fair this year, but I would have attended One Big Event and the Odd Ball if they were on different nights. I had to decide between the two and chose One Big Event.

And so I go.

 

 

 

Actor John Hurt in British television’s The Naked Civil Servant, 1975.

 

 

 

Wearing Metrostyle.

Working Halloween

For those of us who have to work next Thursday, Vogue.com suggests five Halloween costumes we can wear to work.

"To save you from dashing home to make a quick change after you punch out, or picking up a pair of cat ears from a nearby Ricky’s, we’ve come up with five costume ideas that you can actually wear to work. These looks are all office-appropriate and, with the addition of a few iconic pieces, will take you from a breakfast meeting to a midnight masquerade."

I just realized that I have all the pieces to put together a Cher Horowitz costume. Hmmmm...

 

Actor Lionel Barrymore (left) femulating in the 1936 film The Devil Doll.

 

 

 

Wearing Rebecca Taylor.

Got Hats

(This post was inspired by Peter Lappin's "Requiem for Ladies Hat" post on his Male Pattern Boldness blog.)

Peter wrote, "...during the first half of the Twentieth Century (and a bit beyond), women wore hats outside -- and sometimes in -- as a matter of course.  A fashionable woman would no sooner be seen outside without a hat than she would without stockings or gloves..."

My mother wore hats for fashion through the mid 1960s, that is, during my formative fashionista years. As a result, I would don one of her hats when I femulated during that era especially if I was wearing one of the outfits she had put together that included a hat (like mother, like son).

Hats died out in the late 1960s. Just as my mother stopped wearing hats circa 1967, I stopped wearing hats when I femulated.

My mother passed on years ago and when we emptied her apartment, we discovered some of her hats. She kept some of her favorites. I don't know why; maybe she thought hats would make a comeback or maybe she just could not part with them. Whatever the reason, I could not throw them all away, so I kept my favorites of her favorites and have them stored in various nooks and crannies in the house.

Now that Peter has reminded me about hats, I plan to peruse my mother's hat collection and see if there are any that will go with the outfits I plan to wear out in the near future.

 

 

 

Actor Geoffrey Rush femulating on stage in
The Importance of Being Earnest, Australia 2011.

 

 

 

Wearing Boston Proper.

Fantasia Fair is Now

This week is Fantasia Fair in Provincetown on Cape Cod.

I have attended three times... every other year since 2008, that is, years that the Red Sox were not in the World Series.

Since this is an off-year, the Fair will be on my mind all week. I will be thinking about all my friends who are in attendance, while I am not (having a good time - wish I was there).

I am living vicariously in Provincetown by monitoring a webcam pointed south down Commercial Street, a block from the B&B where I have stayed my last two visits. I know the webcam's location well and made a point of waving at it whenever I strolled north on Commercial Street.

Although, you cannot recognize faces via the webcam, it is possible to recognize members of our community. For example, this morning around 8 AM, my transradar sounded when I noticed a tall well-dressed woman in white hosiery and black heels walking up Commercial Street and then stopping to sit on a park bench for 10 minutes or so.

She was an obvious first-timer because Fan Fair veterans and Provincetown's female citizens know better than to wear heels on the unforgiving cobblestone sidewalks of P-Town. Instead, you wear flats and carry your heels in your bag to slip on when you arrive at your dressed-to-be-fab destination.

Remembering my past Fantasia Fair visits, I recalled something that I found interesting yet never mentioned here before. When I stayed in the B&B, there were probably a half dozen other Fan Fair attendees also staying there. Being a B&B, most of the attendees came down to eat breakfast each morning. I was the only one to go to breakfast en femme; everyone else showed up in boy mode, which I found to be a little disconcerting.

By the way, that’s me in the photo above modeling in the 2008 Fantasia Fair fashion show. Also in the photo is Liz Winter, who was the Mistress of Ceremonies.

 

 

 

Femulating fashion model Danila Kovalev.

 

 

 

Wearing Voy.

An Inspiration

If you are like me, you need a little kick-start on Monday mornings. To help you start the week off on the right foot, I will pass along a link to photos of a French woman who will inspire all the ladies reading this blog.

I actually used a photo of her and her friend in the daily Femulator spot last month. I found the photo on Pinterest, but I did not know who she was until Chris1 commented that she goes by the name French Lolita on flickr.

Viewing her photos, you will see that Lolita has great fashion taste and a great wardrobe to go along with it. She is pretty, too, and so are her friends.

So be inspired and be beautiful this week, ladies!

 

Alexandre Beaulieu, professional femulator.

 

Wearing Alice + Olivia.

In His Dreams

 

 

Femulating for Halloween, 2012.

 

Wearing Pink Tartan.

Over His Panties

 

 

Robert Gustavsson and Rickard Engfors femulating on Swedish television.

 

 

 

Wearing a dress I would love to wear!

Diary of a Male Housewife

Femulate is honored to post an excerpt from a forthcoming book, Diary of a Male Housewife, written by Jacqueline Andrews. In her soon-to-be published book, Jacqueline describes how a beta male found his niche in the 21st Century as a male housewife.

Clothing for Support

Although my outer wardrobe changes from day to day, what I wear underneath is very consistent: panty girdle and long-line bra. A transwoman who has lived full-time as a woman for nearly 20 years recommended this combination of underwear because those two foundation garments offer physical and psychological support.

The panty girdle flattens my front, keeps my boy parts tucked out of sight, rounds out my hips and derriere, and narrows my waistline. The bra pushes my boy boobs up and out to give me a small, but decidedly feminine bust. The bra also shapes the fat below my boobs and combined with the girdle, my physique is rearranged into a feminine figure.

Psychologically, wearing a bra sends feminine signals to my psyche that only a bra can transmit. Whereas fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg was quoted once proclaiming, "Feel like a woman. Wear a dress!" I prefer my friend Stana's proclamation, "Feel like a woman. Wear a bra!"

 

 

Actor Guillermo Díaz femulating in the 1995 film Stonewall.

 

 

 

Wearing Nina Ricci.

I Want to Play Cross!

“Crossplay… is cosplay in which the person dresses up as a character of a different gender. Crossplay's origins lie in the anime convention circuit, though, like cosplay, it has not remained exclusive to the genre.” (Source: Wikipedia)

When I was a kid, crossplay and cosplay did not exist and anime was foreign to me. Halloween was the closest thing to cosplay/crossplay that we had. As a fan of comic books and science fiction, monster, and adventure films, I put together Halloween costumes that reflected those interests.

One year I was the Frankenstein monster, another time I was the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Alfred E. Neuman made an appearance one year and I was a pirate twice on Halloween. My mother often helped me assemble my costumes and when I dressed as a pirate, she insisted that I wear gold hoop earrings as part of the costume. So on October 31, 1960, I had my first experience with clip-ons!

As a kid, I never Halloweened as the opposite gender. In my heart, I certainly wanted to femulate on October 31 and I am sure that my mother would have made me into a very authentic female, but I did not have the guts to do it.

My best friend did it one year and I was very jealous. He even suggested that we both go out as girls the following Halloween, but I still could not muster the courage. (By the way, I am sure that my best friend was trans. He probably suspected I was too and his Halloween invitation was an attempt to reach out to me. I so regret not accepting his invitation --- it would have been wonderful having a supportive sister while growing up.)

Five years later, I did have the courage and made my first of many Halloween appearances en femme, but that’s another story.

Getting back to crossplay --- if crossplay existed when I was in my late teens and early twenties, I think I would have participated and I’d probably attempt femulating Wonder Woman or Vampirella. Since I was able to pull off an authentic Playboy bunny, I think my Wonder Woman or Vampirella femulations would be good, too.

Wikipedia also has this to say about crossplay, “Male to Female crossplay is typically divided quite definitively into these two groups: those engaging in genderplay, and those attempting to pass as female. The stark contrast between these two groups is due largely to the social context surrounding the subject of male crossdressing. For most males, dressing in women's clothing is not something to be taken lightly, and so most crossplayers choose either to take the approach of ironic humor (intentionally not passing), or that of the masquerade (attempting to pass).”

Crossplay and cosplay is a young person’s game and I am way past being a young person, but I can look on and appreciate the efforts the male-to-female crossplayers and cosplayers and think about what might have been.

 

Three crossplayers attending a recent convention. Guess which ones are femulating.

 

Wearing Pink Tartan.

In My Shopping Cart

After all my success at the slot machines recently, I decided to treat myself. So i went shopping online and made the following purchases.

Nine West Love Fury "Pointy toe platform pump with all leather upper. 4.5" heel and 3/4" platform." I own this shoe in black patent and it is very comfortable. I have worn it for hours on end without a complaint. I wanted a closed-toe pump in nude, so I figured I could not go wrong with Nine West's Love Fury.
Nine West Sweetness "Mary Jane round toe pump with adjustable ankle strap on a 4" heel." Nine West was having a sale - free shipping and half off a pair of shoes when you bought two pairs - so when I bought Love Fury in nude, I looked around to see what I could buy at half price. I am a sucker for Mary Jane pumps and when I spotted this two-tone beauty, I could not resist and added it to my shopping cart.
Payless Kourtship Satin Sandal "It features a strappy upper, rhinestone accents, elastic ankle strap, padded footbed, 4" heel, 1/2" platform, and a sturdy outsole. Manmade materials." I will be attending One Big Event later this month and I plan to wear a $189 cocktail dress that I purchased for $10 on clearance from Spiegel. I did not have any shoes to go with the dress, so I bought these from Payless.  But now I wonder if I should wear the nude Nine West platform pumps instead. (The Spiegel model showing the dress is wearing nude pumps and they look great with the dress.)
Muse Colorblock Sheath Dress "Circular neckline, faux pockets below waist, back button closure, fully lined." I love this dress... especially its buttons! I was concerned that I would have a difficult time closing the buttons, but when the dress arrived from ideeli, I discovered that only the top three buttons are working buttons; the rest are just decorative. I can easily reach behind to close the top three buttons myself.
Avon Elements Moisture Boost Eye Cream "For both Normal and Combination Skin. Provides long-lasting moisturization. Suitable for sensitive skin. Hypoallergenic. Eye area feels hydrated and refreshed for hours." As an Avon representative, I received this as a sample and began using it about four weeks ago. I love this product and just ordered a second tube. I agree wholeheartedly with one reviewer who wrote, "It goes on nice and smooth but it is not oily or greasy (or drying either).  I've been using it every morning for a month now and I would highly recommend it" Also, by moisturizing the eye area, I find that it disguises the fine lines around my eyes; although the lines are still there, they are less noticeable.

 

SMAP, a Japanese boy band femulating as flight attendants.

 

 

 

Wearing Victoria’s Secret.