Archive for the ‘Fashion, Clothes and Shoes’ Category
5 Tips For Making Womens Plus-Size Fashion Fashionable For Men
Approximately half of all American women are over a size 14, which is considered to be “plus-sized” by the fashion industry. This is good news for crossdressers as it means more stores catering to the larger woman. Personally I’ve flirted with size 14, but spend most of my days between size 16 and 18.
If you’re still trying to understand how woman’s sizes work, take a look at this cross dressing size chart a few months ago.
Crossdresser Clothing
Overweight women want to look as good, stylish, and put-together as their “regular”-sized counterparts. In the typical department store, the selection appears to be quite divergent. The misses department displays stylish, budget-friendly options. The plus-size, or women’s, section shows high-waisted pants, tunic-style shirts, and sack-like dresses. And transvestite fashion seems to be enamored with spike heels and mini-skirts.
What is a crossdressing man with fashion sense to do?
Janet Perry, a plus-size 50-something and author of Bargello Revisited, shares some tips for making plus-size fashion fashionable:
- Educate yourself: Pay attention to what’s fashionable in fashion magazines, on TV, and in everyday life. Doing this shows you what trends are in and what is (or should be) out. Eventually, you will be able to spot the trends and know what’s fresh without having to be told (via magazines or TV shows like What Not to Wear on TLC).
- Know your own body: What is your shape? Do you have an hourglass figure or a square? An inverted triangle or a pear? How do you find out? You could have a figure analysis by a fashion consultant or you can figure it out for yourself. Hold a yardstick against your shoulder and your hip. In looking in a mirror, does the yardstick angle in or out? Does it stay straight up and down? If it goes in, you’re the inverted triangle; out, the pear. Straight? Either a rectangle or an hourglass. How do you tell the difference on that just based on the yardstick? See if you can put any fingers between the yardstick and your waist without moving the yardstick. If you can get at least two fingers between there, you’re an hourglass. Look for clothes that flatter that shape instead of hiding it.
- Know your colors: Perry advocates, “Have your colors done and stick to them.” However, knowing if you look better in cool, warm, or neutral colors will work well enough. To discover that, you need a swatch of shiny silver fabric, shiny gold fabric, and a mirror. Hold each of them in turn up to your face, right under your chin. How do you look? If the silver makes you look washed out but the gold makes you look healthy, stick to warm colors. If it’s the other way around, use cool colors. Both? Technically, you’re neutral, but you can wear cool or warm colors within reason.
- “Accessories and shoes don’t come in plus sizes,” Perry says. Wear classic clothes that fit well and look good on you and indulge in the trends through your shoes, purses, and other accessories. Our crossdressing fashion sense should kick in at this point, as we realize that closed shoes and lower heels are the way to go if we want to be more passable.
- Avoid things that signal you don’t care: Sweatpants never stay looking nice. T-shirt dresses with no shape, pants that are made to look like dresses, and dresses or skirts that are too long make you look frumpy and heavier. No plus-size woman wants, or needs, that. Perry also says, “Muumuus don’t even look good on thin, beautiful Hawaiian girls.”
It is possible to be fashionable on a budget. Some stores, such as Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Katherine’s, Avenue, and Cato Fashions, to name a few, offer selections that are fashionable for plus-size women at various budget-friendly prices. An outfit (three separates) for an awards banquet, for example, recently cost less than $60.00 at Cato Fashions.
If you’re still having trouble you’ll find crossdresser fashion advice and more in this guide. Be beautiful!
Socially Acceptable Cross Dressing - will it ever be in style?
Fashions are a funny thing, and crossdressers are perhaps more beholden to the whims of the fashion fairies than most men. When men dress in women’s clothes, there is something special about looking fabulous and beautiful.
The other day I was thinking - what if crossdressing was normal? You know, if you were just as likely to see a man in high heels and a skirt as a woman wearing a pantsuit. What is there was no masculine gender expression, no feminine gender expression. Would we still be crossdressers? In fact, would we still have the desire to crossdress?
Certainly there must be some part of the transgender experience which is about being unique, in our expression of who we are - the desire to be like woman, yet still knowing that we are a man.
Don’t tell crossdressers they’re normal
If you do, we just might agree. Many organizations, such as Tri-ESS, go to great lengths to remove the stigma from crossdressing. This stigma is entirely a social construct, created by our culture. There are theories as to why crossdressing is taboo - perhaps on a subconscious level it slows down the acquisition of a suitable mate with which to propagate the species?
Nevertheless, fashion will move forward. The brief rise of the metrosexual in the mid 2000’s was a definite step towards a more socially acceptable way for men to express their femininity. Even if all it really meant was that you wore nice clothes and bathed more than once a week.
Socially Acceptable Cross Dressing
I wonder if the next fashion wave will see crossdressing as desirable and trendy? I hope so, but I’m not going to leave my skirt hanging in the closet waiting for it to happen…
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P.S. Don’t wait for crossdressing to come in style. Learn how to do your makeup like a professional and look fabulous!
Cross Dresser Sizes - What dress size are you really?
Men and woman are built differently. (yup, you probably already knew that). This difference makes it harder for us to find woman’s clothes that fit well. It also doesn’t help that woman’s clothing sizes use a whole different size scale than men’s clothing. What is cross dresser to do?
Fortunately, as a reader of Cross Dresser Heaven you’re covered. There are a few important things to know about woman’s sizes. Firstly, the size is expressed with a (usually even) number, starting from 0. If your waist is around 36″ size 16 or 18 will probably fit you best. If you fit into a size 6 I’m envious, but will try not hold your good fortune against you.
Next, there are two “flavors” of women’s sizes. Misses and Women’s. You will usually see Women’s sizes with a W after the number (like 16W), or denoted by 1X, 2X or so on. Women’s sizes are normally larger at the waist and hips, think “fuller figure”. This is something to experiment with, I’ve found the Misses skirts and pants fit me best, but it depends on the clothing line whether a misses or women’s blouse fits best.
Within Misses and Women’s you can choose either a Tall or Petite. Tall is typically for women above 5′8″ while petite is for women shorter than 5′4″. Though the exact height also depends on the clothing line.
The final thing to consider is the difference between men and women’s body proportions. A women’s waist is higher, and their torso’s are longer than men’s. You can use this to your advantage, by wearing a pair of pants below your waist that were meant to be worn on the waist. This is helpful if you’re taller, and aren’t able to find a taller cut.
Here is a handy size table to give you a feel for woman’s sizes. I copied this from my favorite clothing store on the web, Newport News. They are a great place to buy clothes from online.
Cross Dressing Size Chart
If you’re happy with your figure and your look, hopefully this article has helped demystify woman’s clothing sizes. Go forth and look fabulous!
If you’re still having trouble looking fabulous in your crossdressing clothes take your inner woman to the next level with the World’s Best Crossdressing Guide.
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P.S. If you’d like larger breasts to go with your new crossdressing fashion sense you have to try the revolutionary Flat2Fem Male Breast Enlargement.
