Got Coats?

Femulate Contributing Editor Susan King of Transitioning into Tomorrow fame joins us again with her collection of coats.

Fall is here. It's time to pull out the fall and winter clothing. I love this time of year because the clothes cover up more of my male attributes and creates a slimmer silhouette.

A must for this time of years is a set of coats. In 2014/2015, I bought three nice coats and I cannot wait to wear them again.

I am going to look for one or two new coats this season.

Below is an infographic about woman coats and which coat type to wear with your outfit.

Here are my three current coats.

I bought this brown coat with the fur collar while in New Jersey. I forgot to pack one and forget how cold it was in Jersey versus Atlanta. I found this coat at the local goodwill store.

This is my pea coat. I love this coat. It's so cute and works with my leggings. I bought it at Burlington Coat Factory.

I bought this coat while trying to find a pea coat. I liked the style and it's hooded. The light color allows me to wear this coat with different color leggings that I cannot wear with my brown and white/black pea coat.

This season, I am looking for a full-length coat.

Street style, Paris, September 2016

Erik Handoko, womenswear model

DIY Trans Conference

By Eve Taylor

My Southern Comfort Conference (SCC) experience last week wasn’t so comfortable. Maybe it's my age and experience (married and 60+), but I think I’ve outgrown the transgender conferences and meetings.

I have enjoyed the First Event in Boston the last few years; they’re well organized and attended. This year I thought it would be nice to be warm and tropical (Florida). That it was, but the hotel was just dismal and shoddy and in need of a refurb. I know it is the attendees that make the conference, but cigarette burns and mildew in the rooms… echh! The SCC people should re-think that venue location.

What was great was that that my wife and I skipped out of there ASAP, shot up to Vero Beach and had a fantastic time in the sun and surf on our own. Dressing for the beach, pool, dinner, breakfast, shopping!!! We made our own conference.

I, no, we, discovered how liberating it is to be on your own and out and about. Just a couple of gals out having fun. Everyone we met was so nice and friendly. We found out what many married CD’s have discovered… that two ladies out and about attract little attention other than the best wishes from all.

Next time you’re on vacation, pack femme, be free (and respectful of other people’s “sensitivities”) and enjoy yourself!!!

Wearing Ann Taylor.

Uku Suviste ready to femulate Beyonce on
Estonian television's Your Face Sound Familiar.

Tipping Point

I frequently check the latest menswear trends at Juan's New Male Fashion blog and I have noticed that the slow diversification of men's clothing has accelerated during the past year.

In the past, there were only a handful of fashion designers who showed men's clothing that had a "feminine" influence, that is, "feminine" in a traditional and now outdated sense.

Lately, that handful has become a bandwagon full of designers who are showing menswear that not only has a feminine touch, but are designs that could have come right out of a woman's closet. I don't know for sure, but my guess is that the increased visibility of transwomen in society influenced the designers to show more gender diversity in their styles.

That being said, it is one thing to show something unusual on the catwalk and it is another thing to see something unusual on the sidewalk. Admittedly, the feminized menswear I have seen on the catwalk in the past seldom appeared on the sidewalks in my neck of the woods.

That is changing, too. More and more, guys of all ages are wearing more gender diverse clothing on the streets where you live, as documented by Juan's regular street style posts. I see such fashion diversity in Connecticut art museums, shopping malls and even in Connecticut grocery stores.

When I see a thirty-something guy wearing a long skirt, flouncy top and designer bag buying groceries at the local Stop & Shop, I wonder if we are at a tipping point. Will men in skirts and dresses become common and accepted in our society real soon now?

I dunno, but anything can happen. Half a century ago, who would have thought that males would wear makeup, jewelry, cologne, pantyhose,shapewear, leggings, purses, etc., and remove all their body hair. Perhaps, the election of a female President will move things along even faster.  

As Juan once wrote, "Gentlemen, put on your skirts and high heels, fetch your purses, and head to the future."

Wearing Jones New York.

Phillipe Blond

My First Emulation-Worthy Femulator

As a young femulator back in the 1960s, I did not have any femulators to emulate.

On the big screen, there were Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, but they dressed in 1920s flapper styles ― an attractive style, but difficult for this young girl to emulate during the Jackie era.

On the small screen, Milton Berle made an occasional appearance en femme, but his femulations were strictly for laughs; they were clownish and often ugly ― nothing this girl wanted to copy.

The New York newspapers occasionally had ads displaying professional femulators at Club 82 and I so wanted to dress in showgirl drag like the girls at 82, but let's be practical.

There were no femulators that dressed like women dressed in the mid-1960s... no one I could look up to for inspiration.

Finally, one evening watching television in 1964, I saw a great femulation of a mid-1960s woman on a new episode of The Munsters of all places! In that episode, character actor Cliff Norton played a cop who disguised himself as a woman (see photo) in order to trap a guy who was accosting women in the park at night.

Norton's femulation left an impression on me for a very long time. He was not a beautiful woman, but he passed and more importantly, he was dressed like a mid-1960s woman in the styles I knew and loved and wanted to wear.

(The title of The Munsters episode is "A Walk on the Mild Side" and you can view it online in a number of locations; just search on "'The Munsters' 'A Walk on the Mild Side'" and you will find it. The femulation occurs about 19 minutes into the episode in case you want to fast-forward to it.)

(Caveat Emptor: This is a repurposed post from the past.)

Wearing Intermix.

Alex Wetter, male womenswear model

Got Costume?

If you are like me and celebrate Halloween in costume, you only have four weeks to get your getup together.

I am all set. I just have to decide which office girl outfit to wear to work that day. But unlike me, perhaps you have no idea what costume to wear.

Lucky for you, the Internet offers many Halloween costume suggestions this time of year. So let me Google that for you.

My favorite site for ideas is Polyvore's DIY Halloween Costume Sets. Like the Morton Salt Girl idea pictured above, many of Polypore's suggestions are not your typical Halloween costume fare. There is a good chance you will find something there that is uniquely you.

Wearing Boden.

Stephen Carr femulating in a 1952 episode of television's Adventures of Superman.

If It’s Broke, Fix It!

Wednesday morning, I noticed my links to other blogs and trans websites had disappeared from the left sidebar of femulate.org. After looking into the problem, I discovered that the Blogger Link List gadgets that contained those links had been transformed into Text gadgets without any content!

I have yet to figure out what caused the problem. But it comes on the heels of other problems I have had with the blog recently, so it is time to do something about the problems. I have a plan of attack that will probably take a few days to implement.

So please standby while I fix the technical difficulties.

Wearing Venus.

Femulating The Supremes.

SaveSave

Eating Pie

My Wednesday out en femme continued at the West Farms Mall, which in my opinion, is the premier shopping mall in Connecticut.

When I was doing my makeup Wednesday morning, I noticed that my bottle of Avon-brand liquid foundation was at its end. I also noticed that the Smashbox eye shadow primer I use was nearing its end, so it was time to restock and Sephora was my first stop at West Farms.

I quickly found the eye shadow primer, but I was overwhelmed by the huge selection of liquid foundations on display. Foundation brands and types were not as big an issue as was color. I have never been confident of the colors I use; I know my color choices are in the ballpark, but I want to hit a home run, so I asked one of the sales reps for assistance.

Filomena walked me over to the Sephora + Pantone Color IQ display where she used a handheld camera-like device to determine my color, which turned out to be medium beige. The result was entered into the Color IQ iPad and it displayed all the brands of foundations that were available in my color. I selected the Make Up For Ever HD Invisible Cover Foundation. My foundation color choices were always in the lighter than medium beiges, so I will be anxious to see how I look in my corrected color.

I exited Sephora at noon and decided to have lunch. Like most malls, the dining choices are mostly of the fast food variety, but I noticed a new-to-me restaurant that seemed to be a few notches up from the usual mall fare: Brio Tuscan Grille.

As soon as I entered Brio, I knew my estimate was correct. It was a very well-appointed restaurant and most of its clientele were well-dressed business people. I fit right in!

I was seated quickly and an attentive waitress could not have been nicer to me. She helped me select a glass of wine by providing two samples and I selected a 5-ounce filet with grilled veggies from the menu. It was delicious.

The rest of the staff treated me like a lady and the other diners ignored me like an old lady.

After finishing my meal, I needed to use the ladies' room and one of the staff pointed me in the general direction. The problem was that when I arrived at the facilities, the names of the restrooms were in Italian.

I know a few words in Italian, but not "ladies' room" and "men's room," so I selected the room on my left, the one called "Domme." (When faced with choices I am clueless about, I always select the choice on the left.)

It turned out I made the correct choice, but I have to admit I was a little worried while sitting on the toilet trying to figure out which direction the shoes of the person in the next stall were pointed. I am sure they were pointed the wrong way, but maybe they did not know Italian either!

After dining, I browsed the racks in Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom and after getting over the sticker shock, I visited the Apple store to ask a genius a question about the iPad mini.

My feet were holding up very well after six hours in 3-inch heels, but I was done shopping, had bought more than I intended and decided to call it a day en femme.

Home by 4 PM, I kicked off my heels and reflected on my day.

(Caveat Emptor: This is a repurposed post from the past.)

Wearing Anthropologie.

Jim Rash (center) in television's Community.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Wednesday was going to be a very big day out en femme for me. I was going to take the train to New York City to attend a conference with my boss and her boss: three business women in The City for the day.

Needless to say, I was looking forward to the trip, but late on Tuesday, the conference was cancelled and so was the trip to NYC.

Handed a lemon, I decided to make a lemon meringue pie.

Wednesday morning, I phoned my boss and told her I was taking a vacation day. Then I shaved, showered, did my hair and makeup, dressed (new sweater dress from Dress Barn, black opaque tights, black Payless Karmen pumps), grabbed my coat and my bag and headed to the malls.

I arrived at the Westfield Mall in Meriden (CT) a few minutes after it opened. Usually, the mall is very quiet when it opens on a weekday, but it was very busy yesterday. I assume the now perpetual Black Friday had something to do with it.

Wow! How I have changed!

Only a few years ago, I would carefully strategize my mall visits. I would use an entrance with the least amount of foot traffic and sit in my car until I was sure no one else would be entering at the same time as me.

After the all-clear, I would enter the mall and avoid any males who might be traversing the mall and I would avoid eye contact with any human being I might encounter. I would be all business and go directly to the store(s) I was interested in visiting and not browse, window-shop and enjoy my shopping experience.

That version of Stana is so foreign to me now. Now I do the mall just like a typical civilian woman does the mall and I enjoy every minute of it!

Westfield Mall is in decline. JCPenney closed its doors earlier this year and its large footprint remains unoccupied. There are other vacancies throughout the mall and most of the replacements, if any, are of the dollar store variety.

However, one replacement is now a favorite spot for me to shop: Fashion to Figure. They have a nice variety of clothing for fuller figure girls like me, yet their price tags are very reasonable. And they were having a buy one item and get the second item at 50% sale.

I spent an hour trying on clothes in Fashion to Figure and cashed out with three new dresses and one new jumpsuit for $125. (I hope Stana gets invited to some holiday parties this year because two of the dresses are too party to wear to work.)

By the way, the sales associate was so helpful and enthusiastic. She picked out some excellent items for me to try on and when she helped zip me into one of the dresses, she noticed I was wearing my Squeem (she was wearing hers, too), yet she was mum about the stray hairs poking out from the top of my Squeem.

After Fashion to Figure, I exited Westfield and headed to West Farms Mall to continue my day out en femme.

(Caveat Emptor: This is a repurposed post from the past.)

Wearing JustFab.

The Prancing Elites

Milady’s Merchandise

Jaye Anne wrote, “Maybe this will be of modest interest to our more self-conscious  sisters”

“Yesterday I went shopping at about 9:30 AM (at Walmart) and in drab, purchased three panties and a new shade of lipstick (I am partial to L'Oreal lipsticks). I checked out and paid the checkout lady, a woman of about 60. She didn't blink an eye, was friendly and wished me well.

“My point for telling this story is that people in general and women in particular don't care. They do their job and are happy for the sale.  I have, in the past, had the same experience with a skirt and blouse at Lane Bryant.”

I added my two-cents’ worth.

And if they do care, they usually keep mum because it is none of their business.

On occasion, I have had cashiers comment (always humorously) about buying stuff for milady. When they do, I tell them the purchase is for me and show them my photo en femme on my iPhone. That usually blows them away!

By the way, regarding the image above:

1) I’d like to try that while shopping in girl or boy mode, but

2) What are the health issues?

A little Googling came up with "How to Try on Cosmetic Testers in Store."

(Caveat Emptor: This is a repurposed post from 2013.)

Wearing Theory.

Winner of the 1972 "Miss America" pageant at Bryant (AR) High School. Starla sent me this image and remarked, "His Mom looks elegantly coiffed and attired. Like mother, like son?"

Sleeve Shopping

I am a 5'14" tall woman (or a 6'2" guy) and have long arms. I have trouble buying male clothes that have long enough sleeves and buying female clothes with long enough sleeves is even harder!

One workaround is that I tend to buy clothing that is not long-sleeved. Three-quarter sleeve, short sleeve, and sleeveless sleeves are my girlfriends.

Luckily, I have thin arms (for a guy) and do not need sleeves to hide anything. I just have to make sure to remove all the hair and to tan evenly.

But I cannot avoid long sleeves completely. Outerwear for cool and cold weather demand long sleeves and I have to shop long and hard to find what I need.

Size-wise, I am on the borderline of the Misses sizes and Plus sizes. I have found that when shopping for outerwear, I have more success with the smallest Plus sizes than the largest Misses sizes. Plus size outerwear is often larger in the sleeve as well as larger in the body of the outerwear. So, size 14W in outerwear often works for me.

Once in awhile, I luck out. For example, over the years, I had success at Fashion Bug. I have bought dresses and a coat off the rack in Misses size that had adequate sleeve length. But sadly, Fashion Bug went out of business.

Besides Fashion Bug, I have been successful shopping at at JCPenney, Dress Barn, Torrid, and Macy's. More often at JCPenney and Dress Barn, less often at Torrid and Macy's.

Alterations are sometimes an option. I bought my favorite coat (see photo), a three-quarter-length lynx fake fur online from Lane Bryant. It was a beautiful coat and a perfect fit except for the sleeve length, which was way too short. Wearing gloves did not camouflage the problem and I reluctantly prepared to ship it back to Mr. Bryant for a refund.

Before I did so, I noticed that the fake fur did not end at the end of the sleeve. Instead, the fur was folded over into the lining of the sleeve approximately four inches.

I wondered if a tailor or seamstress could do anything with it, so I took my coat to a local seamstress. For $20, she lengthened the sleeves with the fake fur lining and the sleeve length was perfect.

(Caveat Emptor: This is a repurposed post from 2013.)

Wearing Nanette Lepore.

Монро (Monroe), male womenswear model