This is a photo of the evening gown I bought today for $55 ($144 off list price)
"Bead detail along the round neckline frames this black Alex Evenings
mesh gown with elegant sophistication. A criss-cross ruched empire waist
softens the fit and elongates the look."
Isn't it beautiful? I can't wait to wear it!
(updated below)
I wore my Victoria's Secret kelly green sweater dress, Payless tan bootines, Kohl's animal print scarf, and Fashion Bug white fake fur jacket.
I hit the first mall (West Farms Mall) at 10:30 AM and headed straight to the dress department of JCPenney to search out the dress I saw on their website. I quickly found a rack of that very dress and there was one in my size. I also found two other dresses to take into the fitting room.
After I stripped down and prepared to try on my finds, I noticed that the dress that brought me to JCPenney in the first place had a huge brown stain near its hem. It looked as if someone had stepped on the hem with muddy shoes while they were trying on the dress. I was disappointed as it was the only one in my size, but I tried it on anyway to see if it fit, and if it did, I could try another JCPenney store or order it online.
I had a hard time pulling up the zipper with my long nails and with the dresses low back, I was not sure if I had zipped it up completely or had a ways to go. I just assumed it fit and planned to try another JCPenne later.
I tried on the other two dresses, as well as three more that I shagged during my second search through the racks, but they were so unimpressive that I cannot recall a single one.
Only one hour into my day out and the balls of my feet already hurting. I assumed that the 4-inch stiletto heels of my bootines were the source of my pain, but whatever the source, my feet were not going to take me to the opposite end of the mall to Sephora. Also, I wanted to shed my fake fur. It was too hot wearing it in the mall and I could tolerate the mid-40 temperature outdoors without outerwear for the short time out between my car and a mall entrance. So, I went back to my car, shed my jacket, and drove to the other end of the mall.
I had a shopping list for Sephora. I needed to replenish my powder foundation, translucent powder, makeup setting spray, and I had to replace the wig comb that I lost or misplaced. A Sephora sales rep greeted me and helped me find everything on my shopping list.
While shopping at Sephora, I encountered the sales rep who did my makeover over five years ago. She greeted me as if we were old friends, but just to make sure, I asked her if she remembered me. She said she did and when she described that encounter way back when, I knew that she really did remember me.
I thanked her for the words of wisdom she gave me during that makeover ("You only have one life to live and you should live it like you want. If someone has a problem, then it is their problem, not yours.") I have lived by those words ever since that day and I have been very happy doing so.
Paying for my purchases, the cashier complimented my perfume (Chanel No. 19) and informed me I had enough Sephora points to qualify for a free gift. I chose a tube of makeup primer, paid for my purchases, and headed for the exit.
Since I had parked at a Macy's entrance, I made a quick trip through their dress racks, found a couple of potential items, tried them on, but rejected them all. So I left the mall and drove to another mall (Westfield Mall) to try my luck at JCPenney.
Twenty-five minutes later, I arrived at the mall, but before heading inside, I decided to switch footwear to the flats I had recently purchased from Avon. Initially, they seemed comfortable, although they were a little tight. The "seemed" comfort lost out to the "little" tightness in short order.
In JCPenney, I found a rack of the dress of my quest. There were fewer dresses on this rack than at the other JCPenney and I thought that my odds of finding my size were not good. Lucky me: after checking the sizes of all the dresses on the rack, the very last dress I checked was in my size.
I grabbed two other dresses with potential and headed to the fitting room where I encountered the same zipper problem I had encountered with the soiled dress. Had I zipped it up all the way or not?
I managed to slip my arms out of the sleeves and revolve the dress 180 degrees to see what was what with the zipper. Turned out it had about five inches to go; there was no way I could zip it up all the way without removing some ribs.
Going in, I figured that the dress would fit because I had another dress that size in the same brand (Allen B.) that fit perfectly. And when I tried the dress on, it looked great on me. So I was very disappointed; so much so that I did not even consider the two other dresses that I had dragged into the fitting room. I exited JCPenney and walked around the mall.
I visited Torrid and found their "optical illusion" dress to be interesting. I took a size 14 and 16 into the dressing room. To my surprise, the 14 fit and looked great, but I was not ready to spend $75 on a dress that did not outshine the $35 JCPenney dress.
My feet were not liking my tight shoes, so I visited Payless, which was just across the way from Torrid. They had a bunch of shoes in my size on sale, plus they were having a Buy One Get One (“BOGO”) at half price sale, so I tried on nearly everything they had in my size.
I purchased the two most comfortable pairs: a cute pair of black Mary Jane flats and a pair of black open toe sling backs with a 4-inch heel. Despite their heel height, I wore the slingbacks the rest of the day without a problem. By the way, between the sale and BOGO, the two pairs of shoes cost a mere $24.99.
The saleswoman at Payless was one I had dealt with a few times in the past at different Payless stores. On those previous occasions, I was always in boy mode, but I tried on girl shoes in the store, so the she knew I was a girly-boy. Now she was seeing me for the first time en femme. I mentioned that fact to her and she knew immediately who I was and was happy to see me in my preferred gender.
My last stop was Macy's. They had a much better selection of cocktail and formal dresses, both new and clearance, than the other Macy's. I tried on a half-dozen dresses. They were all very nice and of very high quality, so I was willing to pay more.
I narrowed down the selections and bought a "short sleeve, tiered floral lace scalloped hem cocktail dress." But overnight, I got a bad case of buyer's remorse and regretted not buying a long black formal dress with a pearl-embedded halter neckline that was on clearance.
The cocktail dress is very nice and it looks good on me, but I have plenty of good-looking cocktail dresses, while I own nothing like that formal. So, I plan to stop at Macy's today and if that dress is still on the clearance rack, it will be mine.
UPDATE: I went to Macy’s during my noon break and the dress was still on the rack. I grabbed it and took it to the cash register. The sales woman, who rang me up said it was the last one she had and gushed over how beautiful it was.
I told her I tried it on yesterday while I was en femme and it did look beautiful on me. She asked if I performed and we got into a conversation about drag.
When she rang up the dress, I was surprised. Its list price was $199, but it cost me only $55.
The weather girl promises that it will be a sunny day with temperatures in the low 40s --- that's pretty, pretty good for late January in this part of the world, so it should be a nice day out.
My plans for the day include meeting the girls at a local tea room mid-afternoon for tea and more. I am not big on tea, but I've never visited a tea room before, so I am looking forward to a new experience.
Also, I want to visit the mall because I saw a dress on the JCPenney website that will be perfect for my law school reunion. I want to try it on and purchase it if it meets my expectations.
On Monday, I did buy a new dress (see photo) online at Ideeli that is more suitable for the office than the reunion. It is so retro (just like me), but it does not ship until mid-February, so I won't know if it fits until then.
Daily Makeover has the answer.
In the past, I have used software (both online and installed in my computer) that allowed me to do hair and cosmetic makeovers. As time marched on and technology moved forward, newer makeover software became available that was better than the older makeover software, as you would expect.
Patio e-mailed me about new makeover software, Perfect365, that is even better because it is even newer (it was released in November). It is available for the Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Windows. The Mac and Windows versions are free. The iPad and iPhone versions cost $4.99 and $1.99 respectively. There is also a $39.99 "full version" for the Mac and a free online version that you can use with your web browser.
The software is intuitive and easy to use.
After trying out the software for an hour or so, I preferred to use the one-click option and then adjust individual parameters. For example, I might choose the "Glam" one-click option and after Perfect365 performs a “Glam” makeover automatically, I can change the color of the eyeshadow, change the shape of the eyeliner, etc.
The accompanying photos are examples of my handiwork, before and after using Perfect365.
Last Saturday, I presented the first of many webpage links sent to me by Femulate reader Oak featuring photos from the Miss Eng'g (Engineering) womanless beauty pageant at the College of Engineering, University of Philippines-Diliman.
In response to that posting, some of you sent me additional Miss Eng'g links - thank-you. I will collate those links with Oak's links and post them here as I reveal the Miss Eng'g links in a yearly fashion.
Last week's post referenced photos from the 2001 pageant. This week, I proffer photos from the 2004 and 2005 editions of the pageant.
Nevertheless, Andee Werthma and Carlos Chavez added a slew of Famous Females of Height to my collection.
5' 9" - Lily Aldridge - model - Victoria's Secret - source Andee
5' 9" - Stephanie March - actress - television, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
5' 9" - Michaela McManus - actress - television, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
5' 9" - Tamara Tunie - actress - television, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
5' 10" - Sutton Foster - singer, dancer, actress - Broadway, "Anything Goes"
5' 10" - Savannah Guthrie - host - television, "Today" - source: Carlos
5' 10" - Chanel Iman - model - Victoria's Secret - source Andee
5'10" - Diane Neal - actress - television, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
5' 10" - Behati Prinsloo - model - Victoria's Secret - source Andee
5' 11" - Lindsay Ellingson (photo above) - model - Victoria's Secret - source Andee
5' 11" - Erin Heatherton - model - Victoria's Secret - source Andee
This girl bought a new pair of flats from Avon. A "Cushion Walk Exotic Print Loafer" in faux snakeskin with patent leather-like trim, wave-molded footbed, and skid-resistant sole. It is available in sizes 6 to 11, half sizes up to size 10. The shoes are on sale now for $24.99, but they will be $29.99 in the near future.
They are a comfortable fit and are very nice looking, too! It is not often that I buy flats, but I could not resist these.
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Boy Scout "Romeo" embraces and kisses Boy Scout "Juliet." |
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High-kicking Boy Scout can-can dancers flaunt their petticoats to the delight of the audience. |
By far, my favorite dressed-to-the-nines lady was Zooey Deschanel. I also liked (in alphabetical order) Angelina Jolie, Stacy Keibler, Maria Menounos, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon and Evan Rachel Wood, but I thought Zooey was to die for.
On the other hand, there also were ladies on the red carpet who lacked fashion sense, for example, Lee Michele, Emily Watson, Kyle Richards, and Julianna Margulies. But hands down, the worst of the lot was Kelly Osbourne, who looked like she was carrying a 1959 Cadillac on her back.
By the way, The Huffington Post has a slideshow of 97 dressed-to-the-nines ladies from the Golden Globes.
Crossdressing was not a component of any dream last night. Instead, I was a woman from the beginning to end of each dream. This is in contrast to dreams of old, where getting dressed or trying to get dressed en femme was a component, if not the primary plot of the dream.
In the last dream of last night's set, I was dressed for work. The outfit was similar to one I own, but the hairdo was something completely different for me: very loose, medium brown spiral curls that flowed to the shoulder.
I had been thinking about getting a new hairdo that was shoulder-length or longer, but I was not considering loose spiral curls. Maybe my dream was trying to tell me something.
Poking around the Internet, I discovered a large collection of photos on flickr belonging to a male-to-female crossdresser named Brian McCloskey. I was very impressed with Brian's huge female wardrobe and fashion sense, but my curiosity piqued when I noticed that there were many photos showing Brian in what looked like a work environment (a library was my guess) with what looked like a variety of co-workers.
Was Brian going to work en femme?
I had to know, so I e-mailed Brian and asked. A few hours later, Brian wrote back and confirmed that he did indeed dress en femme at work:
I *do* dress to work. It was something I always wanted to do - and my coworkers always encouraged me - but I didn't have the nerve until quite recently. In September of last year I took part in a Living Library event at the library where I worked - I was a "book" that people could "check out" for a short conversation about being a transvestite - and that gave me the courage to dress on a more regular basis. I had thought I might mix it up between boy and girl modes, but....after a couple of weeks I moved all my shirts and ties to the back of the closet and it's been frocks only since then!
Brian has a supportive fiancee and circle of friends who don't care how he dresses.
I very much care how Brian dresses and applaud him for doing so.
Brian can be found online on flickr, Facebook, and Blogger (Brian's current blog and Brian's old blog).
The Miss Eng'g (Engineering) womanless beauty pageant at the College of Engineering, University of Philippines-Diliman is one of the best, if not the best womanless pageant conducted at an educational institute or anywhere else for that matter. Femulate readers agree with that assessment because whenever I post something about Miss Eng'g here, you readers voice your approval.
Oak, a Femulate reader and Miss Eng'g fan, combed the Internet looking for more on Miss Eng'g and was very successful. I have a four-page list of links compiled by Oak that go back as far as 2001 that document the Miss Eng'g pageant in photos. The quality of some of the photos is not the best, but the quality of the femulations depicted in those photos is excellent.
Without further adieu, here is a link to photos from the 2001 installment of the pageant.
Specifically, Bean “plays an English teacher called Simon and his alter ego, Tracie, whose quest for love leads to the courtroom,” according to Daily Mail.
Read all about it here.
The dress arrived, but it is too small or my bust is too big (or actually both).
I returned it for a refund (and not an exchange because I had ordered the largest size available.)
Although it won't help much fitting into that dress, I urge you to buy mass quantities of Girl Scout cookies because of this.
Olympic track and field star Bruce Jenner has been outed as a crossdresser.
I received an e-mail inviting me to a reunion of my law school graduating class in June and I plan to attend en femme (like her).
And so it goes.
I thought the whole point of being transgender was being what you feel on the inside. For me, I wonder why do you have to just feel like a woman trapped in a man's body? Or vice versa? Why can't you identify with both genders and tap into those without being accused of dressing up as a girl for attention? I'm fulfilling whatever vibe I want to go with at that time. I try to block out people's voices in my head and just go with how I feel.
---from the Chris Crocker interview on The Huffington Post, which in my humble opinion, is must reading. Here is the link.
