Wearing Rue La La |
Toby Sawyer femulating in the British film Private Life. |
I was 12-years-old in 1963 and became fascinated with female impersonation when I noticed weekly thumbnail-sized ads in the New York Daily News for 82 Club. Each ad depicting a glamorous showgirl accompanied by the caption “Who’s No Lady?”
The 82 Club showgirls were female impersonators and I was amazed that a male could emulate a glamorous female! I was so impressed that I began clipping the 82 Club ads out of the newspaper each week and hiding them behind the Washington Senators in the box containing my baseball card collection.
One thing led to another and one afternoon when I was home alone, I went into my parent’s bedroom and opened the drawer of my mother’s bureau where she stored her nylon stockings. (This was in the days before pantyhose and seamless stockings were popular, so her nylons had seams.)
I carefully slipped a stocking up each of my hairless legs (those were the days!) and straightened the seams. When I was done, I opened my mother’s closet door to admire myself in the full-length mirror mounted on the inside of the door.
I liked what I saw: a pair of legs that looked just like a pair of woman’s legs! Then I realized that I could do even better.
Inside the closet were stacks of shoeboxes containing my mother's shoes. I carefully looked through the boxes for a pair of high heel pumps. When I found a pair (with a three-inch heel), I slipped them on and revisited the full-length mirror.
Not only did I see a pair of woman’s legs in the mirror, but they were now a shapely pair of woman’s legs! I proved to myself that that a male really could emulate a female.
I quickly, but carefully removed the shoes and stockings and returned them to their proper place before my family returned home. And I assure you that would not be the last time I would visit my mother's bureau, closet and full-length mirror.
Wearing Max Mara |
Femulating professionally at 82 Club. |
After donning my mother’s nylon stockings and high heel shoes and discovering that I was able to emulate the shapely legs of a woman, I just had to push the envelope further. The next time I was home free to explore my mother’s wardrobe, I repeated my first time, that is, I slipped on a pair of her nylon stockings and high heel shoes.
I was well aware of the options available to women of the early 1960s to keep their nylons up and their seams straight. In my mother’s case, she used the garters that were attached to a girdle. I found her stash of girdles in a drawer of her bureau and had to choose from a variety of styles: open bottom, panty brief, long leg panty, high-waisted panty and high-waisted long-leg panty. I figured I needed all the help I could get, so I selected a high-waisted long-leg panty model.
I unzipped and unclasped the girdle, stepped into it and tugged it up over my legs, hips and waist. When I was finished squeezing into it, I closed its clasps and zipper with some difficulty. When I was done it felt like half of my torso was in the grips of a rubber vise.
After I attended to the nylons – straightening their seams and attaching them to the garters of the girdle – I swung open the closet door, viewed myself in the full-length mirror and concluded that the picture was incomplete.
The girdle had redistributed my “baby fat.” As a result, my waist was narrower and my hips were wider, but above the waistband of the girdle, a ring of displaced fat encircled my body and ruined the picture.
I was sure I knew how to fix it – it was time for my first bra!
My mother had a small selection of bras to choose from and they were all similar in style and size, so I randomly grabbed one and tried to figure out how to put it on.
I struggled unsuccessfully to close the bra’s clasps while wearing the bra with its cups in front. So, I slipped the straps off my shoulders, twisted the bra around with the clasps in front of me, closed the clasps, twisted the bra back around and slipped the straps over my shoulders – and that’s the way I have been putting on a bra ever since.
After adjusting the straps of the bra, I was astonished that my breasts nearly filled the cups of the bra! My “boy boobs,” which were the object of ridicule by my peers, now had a safe place to call “home.”
And when I revisited the full-length mirror, the picture was now complete; there was the body of a shapely woman in the mirror’s reflection.
By the way, recalling my second time crossdressing, I realized that the event occurred in 1964 – 60 years ago.
And so time goes.
Wearing Bebe |
Frederick Weller femulating in television’s In Plain Sight. |
Wearing Gracia |
Alex Newell femulating in an episode of television’s Glee. |
I am a big fan of Steve Carell’s version of The Office. After rewatching many episodes of the show, I started picking up clues that Steve Carell’s character, Michael Scott, might have a feminine side. So much so that I created the Michael Scott en femme images that you see above and on Sunday’s post. Anyway, here are the clues that come to mind.
Wearing Venus |
Zach Woods dressed as Lady Gaga for a Halloween episode of television's The Office. |