Crossdressers-Haven.com

For the past couple of years I've been following fashion trends. When a look can fit into my lifestyle, I buy into it. Just bought a pink blouse last night, for example.

I find that if something is in fashion, I can wear more eye-catching, even sexier clothes. Yesterday, for example, I spent the day in tight bright red leggings under a black tunic top. The leggings were tucked into bright red boots. A wild look? Yeah! And a lot of fun to wear! And because it's in fashion, I didn't get any "funny" looks. Got a lot of stolen glances, though.

Fashion works!

Why does it work? Perhaps it's a sublimation? Sublimation is a concept from psychology. Basically sublimation means finding a way to make one's abnormalities more socially acceptable. Sublimation is not necessarily a bad thing. For example, it could be argued that joining a support group is a sublimation. Instead of staying home and feeling guilty (about crossdressing, for example), we can go to a support group and help other people feel that crossdressing is acceptable and appropriate. Knowing we're helping others helps us feel better about ourselves. And when our friends say nice things to us at the meeting, that helps too. And since crossdressing appropriately should be acceptable, this is a good thing.

Fashion could be seen as a sublimation of urges to dress sexy, slutty, colorfully, to attract attention, and so on. Fashion says "for this season, these looks that in the past might have been less than acceptable are now ok, especially if you wear them this certain way." How does fashion do this? By manipulating popular taste, for one thing. If Steven Cojocaru or Tommy Hilfiger or your home economics teacher says something is in fashion, they're giving you permission to wear it. But fashion has other tricks up its sleeve. For one thing, the difference between fashion and fetish is that there is never just one thing in fashion, and what's in fashion now doesn't stay in fashion forever. A crossdresser with a fetish for very short skirts might wear a very short skirt every time she dresses. But fashion says "variety": a crossdresser who's into fashion might wear a very short skirt Saturday night to the club, then wear her flared jeans and pink blouse to the mid-week support group, for example. In fact, she might love short skirts every bit as much as the girl who always wears them, but by varying what she wears, she avoids giving the impression that she has a thing about her clothes.

Most crossdressers have two goals: we want to wear the kind of clothes that we enjoy, and we want to be passable--at least passable enough to avoid dirty looks, catcalls, and so on. Following what's in fashion can help us to do both at the same time.

Hmm . . . I try to stick with clothing that I find reasonable for me; fashion isn't always. Often what's in style is quite bold, and I've never been known for being particularly bold. In any case, with the constraints on my time and money, I might find myself hard-pressed to keep up with the latest. But it's nice that some of us girls can.

Yours,
Celia

I tend to only incorporate fashion that I like into my wardrobe but maybe that's what most normal GGs do too?

Is there a difference between fashion and being stylish? I think so. I think fashion is the leading edge of the trend and being stylish is somewhere after that. I try to be stylish because if I were a woman that's what I would aspire to. My "deal" is to be comepletely passable as the woman I would have been if I were born a woman. Plus I think that fashion, per se, is for women much younger than me. (I wish I could have been this "into CD" when I was in my 20's and had the internet...oh well )

I'm the first one to respond as just a dress-at-home.

I don't really follow fashion trends, just wear what I like from my and my wife's (with her permission) wardrobes.

My happy hunting grounds for clothing are the closeout areas of catalog websites (Old Pueblo Traders, Blair, National Wholesale, Lane Bryant). I admit I am cheap, but setting relatively low price limits adds to the challenge and helps with my wife's acceptance.

She doesn't follow fashion and I usually choose outer clothing that she may possibly want to borrow sometime (she does not like sleeveless tops/dresses). I have bought her tops, dresses, and nightgowns. She likes them and lets me borrow them.

OK, so much for my bleached blonde rambling.

Jadeanne

Hi Rikki,

I'm with you on this one. I follow fashion and would like to do it more. One reason is that I find my sense of beauty and style is enhanced when I pay attention to the latest fashions. In fact, to me, that's one of the attractive things about crossdessing. It's a great outlet for personal expression that I don't otherwise get.

As to being a slave to fashion: I only wish I had the money and the time to at least try it.

Love,

Laura

While I watch and pay attention to fashon I do not follow it. My look on everyday wear is jeans and a t or polo shirt. Maybe a turtle neck under depending on how cold it is. For when I need to dress up it is black dress pants a black dress shirt and a black tie, all topped of with a black leather dress jacket.

Well if we are talking about womens fashion, then no, I only buy what I like and can afford. But when it comes to mens fashion...the answer is still no.

I wear what I like, not what others like.

Hi all,

Like Jadhe, I wear what I like. However, I love variety and will often try on different looks as long as they possess even a hint of femininity. Some of these looks may be in fashion or, at least, somewhat stylish, others not. If my aim is to pass, I usually tone down my exhuberance a little by wearing what it seems most women wear these days. What Cojo says is fashionable in Beverly Hills might not be so in East End Montreal (in fact, I know it just ain't so! ).

I think I may not be alone in this, but my boy mode looks vary much less than my girl mode ones do. In full drab, I go for consistency and usually don't wear anything that seems out of character for the looks people associate with me. Even when I do femme "drabbing" (i.e., partial crossdressing in boy mode), I stick to unobtrusive, conservative clothes pretty much every time (slacks, blouses, low heels, etc.)--a "harried mom" look, if you will.

So, basically, I don't follow fashion in clothing any more than I do in ideologies.

Love,
CJ

Hi Rikki,

Great question.

I use fashion to help me pick the right outfits for the occasion.

I love to see the newest fashions.

Again, great post/thread!

Beauty

Hi Rikki--
I end up doing a lot of shopping and trying on, because there are only certain looks that are going to work with my male body. So I tend to go with what works for me, rather than fashion. It's rare that fashion coincides with my requirements--and part of that is what you said about not being twenty anymore!

I do try to be stylish, and it surprised me what a good eye I had for clothes. I'd really not exercised that talent much, as a guy. Women compliment me on my choices, and of course I like that.

Fashion costs money, too. My eye for style does light up when I go someplace like Nordstrom, but the tags on those dresses are astronomical. As a CD friend said when I mentioned the price of a woman's business suit: "You'd have to get a second job as a woman just to afford that stuff!"
Anita