Very Suitable

There's a lot of truth to my Dress Barn ad parody. They didn’t have Transfashion Specialists at Dress Barn, but their sales reps might as well have been Transfashion Specialists.

I shopped at Dress Barn frequently. The staff at the local store knew me in boy and girl mode and they were very good at making me look my best as a woman no matter which gender I shopped in.

One time, I was shopping for a new dress in boy mode and the sales rep suggested a frock that I would have never given a second look. I tried it on and was not thrilled with the way it looked on me in boy mode, which is often the case trying on womenswear en homme.

The sales rep sensed my lack of enthusiasm, but urged me to buy the dress because she “knew” it would look good on me en femme. If not, I could always return it for a full refund.

I trusted her opinion, bought the dress and when I wore it en femme, it looked gorgeous and received lots of compliments.

Go figure.

Wearing Ann Taylor

Triplets

Someday Funnies

Wearing London Times

Susan, a Femulate reader

Various Topics of Interest

I wear clip-on earrings, but they are getting harder to find. Avon stopped selling them and last time I visited the mall shopping for them, I came home empty-handed. 

A few days ago, while placing another Amazon order, I thought that since Amazon sells just about everything, maybe they sell clip-on earrings, too. A quick search revealed that they do sell clip-ons and I ordered two sets (these* and those*).

They arrived today and I am happy with y purchase. A nice feature is that unlike the clip-ons I already owned, the clips on these are tiny and look like pierced earrings.

👠👠👠

I was very surprised to learn that Virgin Atlantic Airways announced updates to its gender identity policy that include allowing staff to wear gender pronoun badges and eliminating the gendered uniform requirement. Now, Virgin staff can select which uniform they want to wear. (Source: LGBTQNation)

To add icing on the cake, Virgin Atlantic job applications doubled after they allowed women to wear pants and men to wear skirts. (Source: LGBTQNation)

Wow! I think I would feel very comfortable flying en femme on Virgin Atlantic!

👠👠👠 

My good friend Ann Onymous, commenting on yesterday’s post, wrote, “We need a photo of Stana in the dress...”

A photo of me wearing the Venus cocktail dress appears to the above right. I was a little hesitant publishing it because after viewing it, I thought it would look better if I was wearing dark sheer hosiery rather than the black opaque tights.

And so it goes.

* These links go to Amazon.

Wearing Boston Proper

Virgin Atlantic flight attendants wearing his/her uniforms. You can view Virgin Atlantic’s short video introducing the new uniform policy on YouTube. 

All Dressed Up...

In July, I ordered a green sequins cocktail dress from Venus. When I placed the order, Venus informed me that it was back-ordered. That was not a problem because I had no cocktail parties scheduled in my immediate future.

During the summer, Venus regularly emailed me that the dress was still back-ordered with a tentative shipping date in late October and an option to cancel at any time. I wanted the dress and did not cancel.

The local LGBT group has a big dressy event in the fall, which I have attended in the past. This year, the event was scheduled for early November, which coincided nicely with the delivery of the dress in late October. Now I had someplace to wear the dress, but I had two issues: my knee and the events $200 price of admission.

I had an appointment with my knee doctor three weeks before the event. If he gave my knee a shot, my knee might be in good enough shape to attend the event. He did give me the shot and three weeks later, my knee felt great.

The dress arrived on time, looked great and looked good on me, so I was moved to spend the tax-deductible $200 for a ticket to the event. After all, where else could I wear the dress before the meds in my knee wore off.

Diana had contacted me previously about attending the event with her (a girls’ night out). I told her about my issues and said I would get back to her. Now that all systems were go, I contacted her, but she was stuck on the Cape and could not attend. I did not want to go alone, so I cancelled my plans.

I don’t know where I will wear the dress... maybe a Christmas party. Meanwhile, I am all dressed up and nowhere to go.

Wearing Venus

Students at the Russian Imperial School of Jurisprudence emulating gypsy men and women, circa 1910.

Someday Funnies: His and Hers

Wearing Donna Morgan

Womanless wedding in Petrograd, Russia, 1921.

Someday Funnies: If You Got ’Em

Wearing New York & Company

Santiago Emiliano femulating on an episode of Mexican television’s Como dice el dicho.

Girls Who Wear Glasses

Last time I went to an optometrist was over five years ago. Lately, I noticed my vision has gotten worse, so it was time to go see an optometrist again. Problem is that my old optometrist is no longer covered by my insurance, so it was time for a change.

My sister has been getting her eyeglasses online and she is very happy with that arrangement, not to mention that buying eyeglasses online is substantially cheaper than buying from an optometrist. 

I decided to try that option myself, so I made an appointment with the local Costco Vision Center to get my eyes checked and obtain a new prescription for $60. 

With the new prescription in hand, I visited the online eyeglass purveyor that my sister uses (Zenni). I set up a new account and entered my prescription on their website. Zenni (like other online spectacle sellers) offers the option to upload your photo to their website so that you can try on eyeglasses virtually. So I uploaded my visage and shopped for new eyeglasses. 

There were a lot of frames to choose from and I found a nice gender-neutral pair for $52. That is about 12% of what I paid the last time I purchased eyeglasses from my optometrist! At that price, I decided to buy a second girlier pair to wear when I am en femme.

I uploaded my female visage to the Zenni website and shopped for my girly glasses. You can see the pair I selected in the image above. I should have my new eyeglasses in 7 to 10 days and look forward to wearing them out among the civilians real soon now.

Wearing Boston Proper

Dave Foley femulating in televisions The Kids In The Hall.

Transitioning

In response to my standing offer to answer anything you ask me, Julie Shaw wrote the following:

I'm getting tired of coming up with answers to “well meaning” people asking me when I’m going to start transitioning. I don’t WANT to transition. I’m a heterosexual male-to-female crossdresser and have NO desire to change that.

My question for you is “how would you communicate this to those sisters on social media who all but berate me for not being true to yourself.” I have run out of words.

It seems to me (with emphasis on “to me”) that the meaning of “transition” has changed over time.

In olden days when I still lived in a closet, transition meant that you took hormones, had surgery and did all that the law allowed to officially change your name and sex designation.

Today, the definition of “transition” is a lot looser. You don’t have to take hormones and/or you don’t have to have surgery and/or you don’t have to legally change your name or sex designation. You don’t even have to live full-time in your trans gender.

So I guess I transitioned some time ago and didn’t even know it!

At Fantasia Fair in 2014, I attended Natasha Wilkie’s presentation “Planning Your Transition.” The most important thing I took out of the presentation was that you do it at your own pace... a pace that you are comfortable with.

As the presentation ended, Natasha left us with a metaphor... Transition is like riding a train. You can get off at any stop and you can get back on the train whenever you wish and in some cases, you can go back to a previous stop.

So when quizzed about when am I going to transition, I can honestly say I have transitioned already.

Nota Bene! This post is a re-post.

Wearing Boston Proper

Alejandro de Hoyas Parera femulating in an episode of Mexican television‘s Esta Historia Me Suena.

Someday Funnies: The Emperor’s New Clothes

Wearing Ann Taylor

Working Sisters

I was a working stiff for almost 40 years. The companies I worked for employed thousands of people, yet I never encountered another trans sister among my fellow employees.

Admittedly, I kept a lid on my crossdressing the first 30 years, but outed myself with my Halloween femulations the last ten years. Yet, no one ever approached me to introduce themselves as a trans sister, which is understandable. 

Most people are more circumspect than me about our “hobby.” I was probably just as careful about my secret identity before I came out and don't know if I would have come out to a sister co-worker if the opportunity arose, which it never did.

After I retired from ARRIS in 2017, I did discover that one of my blog readers worked at a different ARRIS facility and we knew some of the same people. 

It’s a small world after all.

Wearing Jonathan Simkhai

Rodney Chester, Shaun Earl, Jazzmun and Red Savage femulating in the 2000 film Punks.

Gutsy List

Trying to come up with the most unusual thing I have ever done en femme, I revisited my bucket list to see what stood out. I discounted closeted trans items on the list, like “Go to a support group meeting.” Although they are accomplishments, there are safety nets involved and not much interaction, if any, with civilians. 

Perusing the remainder of my bucket list, I selected the items that the average person would consider to be “gutsy” (or “nutsy”):

• Attend a school reunion
• Drive cross-country
• Go to a non-transgender convention
• Live full-time for an extended period of time 
• Public speaking

Attending my law school reunion was a big deal, but previously doing the other items on my short list prepared me for attending the reunion. (And I still regret not attending my high school reunion en femme. The good news is that there is talk of another high school reunion in 2024, so I may have another opportunity to attend en femme.) 

Going to a non-transgender convention (Hamvention) involved the other items on the short list. 

Driving cross-country (750 miles) to and from Hamvention involved interacting with a lot of civilians (for example, stopping to purchase gasoline and food, checking in and out of hotels, using public ladies’ restrooms, etc.). 

Intermingling with 30,000 civilians (ham radio operators) over a long weekend at the convention, some who knew me as a “legendary” male ham radio author, was a little daunting initially, but became comfortable over time. Along with the cross-country drive, I checked off the “Live full-time for an extended period of time” item on my short list.  

Public speaking at the ham convention’s forums to audiences of civilian hams (numbering 400 to 500) was probably the most gutsy thing I ever did. It took eight previous convention visits en femme before I felt comfortable enough to do it. Now I would do it at the drop of a hat. That’s progress!

Wearing Bebe

Shemp Howard, Moe Howard and Larry Fine (The Three Stooges) femulating in the 1950 short Self Made Maids. Although this is typical Three Stooges fare filled with slapstick comedy, the boys played it straight when presenting as females. Their voices were convincing and I loved their circa 1950 outfits. You can view this femulation on YouTube.