Wednesday Woman Continues

(Continued from yesterday's post.)

Leaving the mall, I had a ten minute drive to the offices of the organization for whom I freelance.

I worked full-time in those offices over 30 years ago before I began freelancing. Most of the people I worked with then are long gone, but the receptionist is the same friendly woman who I first met back in 1978 when I started work there --- my first professional job after graduation.

She greeted me like an old friend despite the changes on my side of our relationship. We chatted about old times, how things had changed and retirement (hers is imminent, mine not so much).

My editor arrived in the lobby and we went to lunch at a nearby pub. We both ordered chicken pot pies and they were delicious. Over lunch, we talked about business and the hobby we write about. Time passed quickly.

(By the way, my editor has been fully aware of my trans life for a few years now and Wednesday is not the first time she has seen me en femme. In fact, we have had a couple of girls' nights out together in the past.)

Passing in a restaurant is easy as compared to passing while walking through the mall. Once you are seated, you blend in with the other diners. Height is my giveaway, but when I am seated, I look as tall or short as any other woman. Our waitress referred to us as "ladies" and so it went.

After lunch, we drove back to the offices and my editor gave me the nickel tour. Things had changed since I worked there three decades ago and I was anxious to see what was new.

During the tour, we encountered only one other person I knew from the good old days. I am in e-mail contact with this woman a couple of times each month and we have an excellent working relationship. She was happy to see the new me and I was happy to see her.

I enjoyed the tour, thanked my "guide," and exited.

The afternoon was still young and I decided to go shopping again. I drove to the strip mall across the street from West Farms Mall and visited DressBarn.

I found two dresses that I liked and took the two dresses in two sizes to the fitting room. One dress fit in the smaller size (see photo) and the other dress fit in the larger size --- go figure!

I bought both dresses and went home relishing another great day out en femme.

National Opposite Day is Today!

Jimmy Fallon femulates Taylor Swift on his Super Bowl post-game television special, 2012.

 

Wearing Prabal Gurung for Target Collection.

Wednesday’s Real Life Experience

It was so cold on Wednesday! The temperature never reached 20 and the wind chill made it worse. (The wind chill on Mt. Washington was 
-85 degrees. Can you imagine?)

I dressed for the weather. I wore my purple knee-length, long-sleeved sweater dress, diamond-patterned tights, booties and white fake fur jacket.

I arrived at West Farms Mall shortly after it opened and went straight to Macy's to look for the "perfect dress" that I saw there a couple of weeks ago. I quickly found it in my size and took it to the fitting room along with two other dresses that looked lovely.

The perfect dress fit, but did not look perfect. The other two dresses were even less so. I decided to abandon Macy's and walked to JCPenney at the other end of the mall.

I found four dresses in the JCPenney racks that I took to the fitting room. One dress looked fabulous on me, but I could not zip it up all the way and sadly it was not available in a larger size.

Two of the other dresses were so small that I could not get them on at all. The fourth dress fit and I kind of liked the way it looked on me. But after considering it, I decided not to settle; I could do better. So I exited JCPenney and walked back to the Macy's end of the mall where my car awaited me.

Although I was dressed for the weather outdoors, I was way overdressed for the "weather" inside Macy's and JCPenney. It was uncomfortably warm in the stores. Shedding my fake fur jacket helped a little, but not enough and I was anxious to get out into the fresh air again. And as it was, time was of the essence --- it was time to meet my editor for lunch.

But before I get into that, you may wonder about my real life experience in the mall. I am so used to being out en femme that I don't even think about it, but the e-mails I receive indicate that some of you wonder about it.

Even though the mall had just opened, it was busy --- not Christmas season busy, but there was a lot of foot traffic, all adults because school was in session.

I usually avoid eye contact with males --- don't want to encourage them --- but I did eye catch a half dozen or so checking me out as I walked through the mall.

On the other hand, I watch females more closely to see how they react. Three or four smiled and said "Hello" as we passed each other in the mall. I noticed a few other females looking me over --- trying to figure me out I suppose.

No one, male or female, acted negatively to my presence. No one was outraged and no one laughed. I think most people just perceived me as another middle-aged woman in the mall, which works for me.

(To be continued)

Happy Birthday, Andrew Ellicott

Femulating fashion model Andrej Pejić wearing a cross-dress.

 

Wearing Emilio Pucci.

Out Wednesday

I should be seated with my editor at a restaurant ordering lunch when this is posted.

Before lunch, I planned to shop for a red dress to wear to an upcoming Valentine's Day dance.

I saw the perfect dress in Macy's a couple of weeks ago, but did not have the time to try it on. So I planned to return today and see if it is "me." If not, there are other red dresses and other stores in the mall that sell red dresses. 

After lunch, my editor will give me a tour of the facilities and I will meet some of my virtual co-workers.

It should be a full day en femme. And I will submit all its details to you real soon now.

Happy Birthday, Gail O'Grady

Femulator Vincent McDoom, French model and television presenter.

Wearing Rachel Zoe.

Fanny and Stella are Fellas

Gwen alerted me to a new book about the crossdressing scandal that rocked Victorian Great Britain. Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England is the title of the book and here is Amazon.com's description:

"The flamboyantly dressed Miss Fanny Park and Miss Stella Boulton are causing a stir in the Strand Theatre. All eyes are riveted upon their lascivious oglings of the gentlemen in the stalls. Moments later they are led away by the police. What followed was a scandal that shocked and titillated Victorian England in equal measure.

"It turned out that the alluring Miss Fanny Park and Miss Stella Boulton were no ordinary young women. Far from it. In fact, they were young men who liked to dress as women. When the Metropolitan Police launched a secret campaign to bring about their downfall, they were arrested and subjected to a sensational show trial in Westminster Hall.

"As the trial of 'the Young Men in Women's Clothes' unfolded, Fanny and Stella's extraordinary lives as wives and daughters, actresses and whores were revealed to an incredulous public."

It sounds like a very interesting read. February 7 is the book's publication date.

Happy Birthday, Christopher Masterson

Actor Christopher Masterson femulating in television’s Malcolm in the Middle, 2003.

 

Wearing L’Agence.

Lovely Laddies

Starla does it again and digs up another fine collection of high school yearbook femulations. 

It was difficult picking one HSFMLTSBFT (High School Femulator Most Likely To Still Be Femulating Today) from this bevy of beauties; any of the pretty "girls" pictured above may still be femulating today. Maybe they all are!

Anyways, I uploaded the 49 new images to flickr and you can view them as usual:

Method 1: Open one of the Yearbooks sets (A through Z) and you will find the newest uploads at the end/bottom of the set. (The oldest uploads appear at the beginning/top of the set.)

Method 2: Open my photostream and you will find the newest uploads at the top of page 1. The uploads get older as the page numbers get higher with the oldest uploads on the last page.

By the way, the contents of the Yearbook A through Z sets are organized according to school name, for example, the photos from Hard Knox High School would be in the Yearbooks H set.

This is No Name-Calling Week

Scott Barrie, professional femulator, circa 1910.

 

Wearing Spiegel.

Forced Diversification

Happy Birthday, Dorothy Provine

Actor Hutch Dano femulating in the 2010 film Den Brother.

Wearing Rebecca Taylor.

Poodle Envy

Happy Birthday, Tippi Hedren

Crossdressed dance marathon, circa 1925.

 

Wearing Rachel Zoe.

Doing Lunch

I have a luncheon date with my editor on Wednesday. I am not sure where we will go to eat, but I will femulate appropriately. I think an office girl emulation will fit the bill.

The weather forecast for Wednesday is "partly sunny, with a high near 21." So I better not wear a short skirt and I will probably wear tights and boots to stave off the cold.

It has been over a month since my last outing en femme, so I am looking forward to Wednesday. It will be nice to be out in the company of another woman instead of going solo.

Happy Birthday, Archibald Leach

Actor Cary Grant femulating in the 1949 film I Was A Male War Bride.

 

Wearing Prabal Gurung for Target Collection.

Sissy No More

Happy Birthday, Françoise Hardy

Actor Doug Haley femulating in the Videojug series of drag how-to videos.

 

Wearing Jean Paul Gaultier.

Sleeve Shopping

I am 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 is going 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, 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.

I much prefer to go shopping en femme so that I can try on clothes and get the full effect --- not only to see what fits, but also how the stuff looks on a lady and not a guy --- I assure you that it makes a big difference.

I take the maximum number of items to the dressing room and go at it. I have never had an issue en femme using the women's dressing rooms to try on clothes. It is the only way to go, although I have also tried on clothes in boy mode when that was the only choice I had. I refuse to buy something in boy mode, take it home to try it on and then have to return it --- that is the way I used to shop and that got old real fast.

Shopping online is worse, although I have to admit that making returns is easier these days than in the past. Nowadays, some of the online stores cover the cost of shipping returns, but you still have to deal with packaging up the returns, not to mention dealing with the disappointment of ordering something "to die for" that does not fit or looks like it died when you tried it on!

Happy Birthday, Susan Sontag

Actor and professional femulator Michael Andrews in the film Murder Me, Murder You, 1983.

Wearing Prabal Gurung for Target Collection.