Shopping quests

Many video games use the concept of completing quests, searches for special items, to grow game characters.  My closet too seems to have grown through various shopping quests...

    Flats                        Pumps        Red heels               Peep toe heels

        Strappy heels                            Subtle wedges        Boots 

    Fashion tights        Sheer tights

    Basic tops        Polo tops        High neckline tops 

        Sheer tops                                    Career tops and pants 

    Skinny jeans        Passable jeans 

    Holiday dresses         Casual dresses        Special occasion dresses 

    Sweaters 

    Purses        Wristlets        Crossbody purses        Handbags

    Jewelry 

    Simple briefs        Bras        Shaping swimsuits        

        Shapewear            Victoria's Secret bras !!!

Stepping out

Before walking confidently in heels, we need to start with one foot in front of the other, staring at the ground as we learn balance.  With patience, practice, and paying attention, we can reach new places.

Stepping out for me has led me...

1. Trying on shoes (the beginning)
2. Tights under jeans
3. Panties under jeans
4. Bras under thick clothes
5. Neutral tops
6. Subtle women's jeans
7. Women's sneakers
8. Flats with black knee-his
9. Flats with nude knee-his
10. Low wedges
11. Flashy pumps
12. Flashy flats
13. Cross-body purses
14. Shapewear
15. Jewelry
16. Full outfits (2 years later)

Evolving mindsets

Women are known to shop.  Crossdressers are known to shop discreetly, with quite a lot of nervousness mixed in.  I found my shopping mindset has evolved over the years...

• Not shopping (the early years)
• Just browsing (learning)
• For someone (that imaginary woman)
• This might be the size (intelligent shopping for that still imaginary woman)
• Shopping for me (confidently now)

New hair style

A new hair style is one way a woman can redefine herself, watching locks of the past fall away, and welcoming a refreshing future. Going long, cutting short, bangs, bobs, fades, so many options to walk out of a salon with a new attitude, new confidence, and new attraction.

Attraction leads me to dress, dressing leads to distraction.  Sometimes, though, distraction pleasantly leads me to not dress for weeks.  Musing challenges whether this is really just a long phase of inevitably stopping.

Beauty surrounding me, can make me feel beautiful, just as much as wearing beauty.  My collection of dresses and shoes feel like they don't need to be there, but there is some familiarity, some history of keeping them.  If only a new hair style could do all this for me.

Fashion invasion

Balancing in heels is a lot easier than finding a balance with dressing and life.  It seems unfair that only one gender gets approved to wear sexy shoes that exposes feet, increases height, adds an alluring gait.  They're just shoes after all, right.  At least that's what I try to believe.

Embellishing with makeup and nail polish unfairly lets some perfect their look, and forces guys to have realistic looks, with no way to iron out wrinkles, or cover up cracked nails, or fix skin blemishes.  Wearing guy makeup and nail polish is slowly becoming accepted, if you declare being metro.

Showing off skin, bare chests, slender arms, smooth midriffs only works when wearing fashions that are stereotypically admit being flamboyantly gay.  Why not uncover and show that we too aren't perfect.  Body hair can be made to look attractive with the fashionable cuts and fabric.

Accessorizing with scarves, jewelry, piercings, and taboo colors seems more normal for the next generation where guys in skinny jeans and tight shirts stream football games.  If only to have been born a decade later.

photo credit: hat and zara silk shirt via photopin (license)

Happy holidays (hopefully)

The season of stress has begun!  Stress to get places, stress to get gifts, stress to make everyone else's holiday happy.  All while watching women swap out their summer clothes for infinity scarves, sweater dresses, lined leggings, tall boots.  If only I could swap out my boring guy clothes for a feminine, refreshing winter look, along with lots of fun accessories.  Maybe dressing how I feel would eliminate one stress point.

The season of sales is here!  Normal guys all over are walking into women's stores, browsing the women's depts, purchasing feminine items for those special women in their lives.  For us, that means more cute fashions to try on, more help from unassuming SAs, more approval glances from wives and mothers who think we're shopping for them, more items in our sizes, more gifts to ourselves.

The season of red is livening up the cold.  My favorite cashier decked the halls in a dark red sweater, dark blue jeans, dark red fur boots, crimson lipstick, all while jingling her new curly long hair look.  I doubt she realizes how inspiring her simple fashion looks are.  Her store has a good variety of red clothing and shoes to keep the holidays happy (hopefully).

photo credit: IMG_7341crsh signed via photopin (license)

Dressing down

Stealth mode is a tactic many of us part-time dressers use to balance social norms with our desires to push the fashion gender lines.

There's a term, underdressing, which refers to dressing in bras/panties/pantyhose/camis under our normal guy clothes.  I was surprised that some guys are able to underdress every day to work, wearing guy suits over soft, feminine items.  It takes a lot of attention to detail to ensure that there are no visible panty lines, bra/cami strap bulges, or peeking pantyhose that would give away our true identities.

Subtle dressing is a term I use for blending in women's fashions into a "guy look".  Socks are an easy, yet invisible start.  Black flats or black wedges with black nylon socks are almost invisible since most people pay very little attention to the shoes a guy is wearing.  V-neck tees and higher scoop tops could look like something out of a guy's closet.  A sweater dress can be converted to look like a long sweater.   Skinny jeans are finally "in" for both genders.  Bangles and bracelets can be worn with long sleeves for quick concealment.  Crossbody purses could look like satchels.  The key is acting confident, looking friendly, and walking with determination to avoid too much notice.

Dressing down is a new term I've come up with to mean shedding feminine attire just before arriving at work, home, or somewhere others just don't understand you yet.  Changing into pair of heels in the car can easily add some fun to a boring commute.  Leaving home dressed as a guy on the outside makes it easy to shed a few layers into a cute, womanly outfit while running errands in a neighboring town.  There is a sad, sometimes frustrating feeling, when it is time to get back into guy uniform.  Yet, that's one way of maintaining a balance.

photo credit: My Underwear on display. via photopin (license)