Do you try to dress like a real woman?

[Majella St Gerard]

I go for the girly cute look mostly when I go out in public, I do try to blend in by not wearing anything too over the top, I try to be low key. But since I do not dress to pass or appear as a woman I do tend to stand out, with my 6 in heels I am over 6 feet tall. I present myself a man in a dress or skirt or whatever. I do not wear a wig and only wear light makeup. I do like to dress femme and sexy also and will do that usually around the house. I think I look good combining the masculine and the feminine look, my wife loves my style and compliments me often on what I am wearing. Anyway, I'm starting to ramble on. Just my thoughts. Have a great day all and get dressed and go out, it's fabulous. What do you care what other people think, just do it.

[FelicityMay]

Nothing in this thread has bashed on over the top dressers. It is just a question of preference. I actually hoped there would be some when I asked

[Joanne Curl]

I dress to blend in but matbe just a bit more pretty. I love to go out and I don't want to attract any attention as the old fat cross dresser but as the well dressed, older well turned out lady that I strive to be.

[K8astrophe]

Brenda, it is definitely harder to find shoes as you get up in size, but 11 and 12s can still be found in some non stripper-esque styles. I think 13 is where it really thins out. I'd recommend Nine West, DSW, and Nordstroms...definitely not as much as you can find at size 10, but it's not hopeless and you can filter by size up front to save yourself the heartbreak of falling in love with shoes that aren't your size. On a budget, I think Target carries 11s in many of their styles. I've picked up some wedge flip flops there in the past, but a lot of theirs are pretty narrow.

[Memzy]

Real women don't dress like me and I don't dress like real women. I'm over the top and off the deep end.

+1!

I dress like a rockstar, because well. I am a rockstar. Trying to blend in uses so much energy.

This is a response I responded to someone with that said I dressed too over the top~

Really don't think there is a certain way women necessarily have to dress. I mean yes, there's absolutely ridiculous such as... the super low cut cut trend from Japan, but hey. Personally I find it amusing, to each their own!



But if we all dressed along the same guidelines, the world would be a much more boring place. I see clothes, and makeup as a means to express myself, in my own way. Much like a lot of people. The interesting thing about it however is that expression can be taken several ways. For example what has happened here, some say I look very "sexual", while others say "cute", I think even "punk" was expressed. Who knows, I could be all the above. I could possibly be a porn star. I guess fact in the end is, like my transition, I dress for Me. I would like to say that other peoples opinions don't bother me at all but that would be a total lie. After all I am very self conscious about the whole "passing" business. Which in reality is kind of silly. It's almost like we as trans women are being lumped into some sort of formula of how a women should look, and act.


It's kind of funny how women are expected to be overtly sexual but put down as ****s, *****s, tramps and prostitutes when they accentuate this nature about themselves. Even if it's expressed in a classy manner. (on the flip side the same sort of thing can be said about men as well. Except they are often referred to as "homosexual" if they wear anything resembling femininity.)


I suppose in the end it's all about personal preference, and what we find to fit in our own little comfort zone. I do wonder if the categorizing people dressed inappropriately actually comes from some sort of self conscious thought of "I would feel very uncomfortable, and ****ty if I wore that myself" that leaks onto judging said person as such.
I don't know! I have word vomit so I'll shut up now ;c


tl:dr I dress how I want, because I'm a living canvas! Or something like that.



Kyary who happens to be my biggest idol and inspiration said it best~

[NANNETTE]

I tend to like the librarian/office gal look myself but I would love to go out in a nice evening dress someday. My main goal is to be passable and if I feel naughty i'll wear it under the "normal" gal clothes but I try not to stick out when I dress

I like the office girl/librarian look that sums me up to a tee.

[Adrienne Heels]

I do try to blend in....pants, capris, sweaters......but always heels, whether to the mall or going out at night. I guess it is the working mom look.

[Kristy 56]

I guess my answer is yes and no. When I used to go out yes,so I could blend in as much as possible. At home I dress the mood.

[PretzelGirl]

Been a busy week Felicity and I just saw this.

First, the reason we do this is to be happy. So anything goes and it is all good.

For me, I get out a lot. And when I go out, I want to blend to a certain extent. But sometimes we get a dim view of what blending is and a comment about Walmart way back kind of shows that. Just because sloppy dressers go to Walmart doesn't mean you need to dress sloppy to go. Good dressers go there too. So when you dress and go out and you desire to blend, you don't have to work towards the most "casual" of the range available. If you go to the most dressy, you may get a few more looks, but you don't stick out either as long as you don't push it.

So for me, blending can sometimes be just capris and a casual top. Or like last night, the night went Old Navy, dinner, movie, and grocery shopping and I had on a fairly colorful, long skirt and a nice top. Probably got a few extra looks, but I was wearing tall wedges too. Had a great night and wasn't worried about it.

But for me, I do like to dress up too. I get that "out of my system" by going to nice events, doing it for Tri-Ess meetings, completely breaking my normal standards at Diva Las Vegas, or I use time at home to experiment with looks and outfit assembly.

It is all good and you just develop your own styles and patterns. The question in the end is, are you enjoying life? The rest is noise.

[Leona]

I half dress in public. Usually a unisex tie dye t-shirt and a sarong tied as a slit skirt, but that's because I don't go out much and go out mostly to the grocery store. I work too much and am too broke to really have time/money to do stuff. So I don't try to pass or anything, I'm just a man in a skirt.

What I've noticed, though, is that women check me out a lot more in the skirt. I've always thought men would benefit by not being so uptight about their clothes. You don't have to have any sort of female gender identity to rock a skirt, and women dig that.

[PaulaQ]

I try to choose clothes that match what GG's (hopefully better dressed ones) wear. There's a lot of options for that though. I try to dress appropriately for the time of day, and location - I wouldn't wear a LBD at Walmart at noon for instance. But really, the great part about women's clothes is that you can wear pretty much anything you want.

[Cheryl T]

Well, firstly I don't dress like a "fake" woman, so I suppose that only leaves a real woman.
Unless I'm going to a party or some fancy affair I look just like any other woman you would find where ever you are. I don't wear a fancy dress, stockings and heels to the mall (although if I had the $$ to shop at Nordstrom's I might), I dress like everyone else. Mostly it depends on the weather and where I am going. Shorts or capris and a nice top with sneakers, flats or sandals out shopping in the summer and jeans or slacks in the cooler weather.
Primarily I dress for me. I wear what is comfortable (cute too) but never over the top. I just enjoy being me and don't really care about being a "Klum clone" or following the dictates of some "fashionista" who has no clue who I am.

[Angie G]

I try to put together the best look I can. I do makeup now and then but I try to keep it simple.I keep my hair long and sometimes curl it.I don't try for over the top look.
Angie

[danielletorresani]

My favorite look that I shoot for would be a hot secretary type in the 60's, kinda like a Mad Men kinda vibe. The girl I dress like doesn't exist much at all anymore, unfortunately. For me, I don't care much about authenticity, only what turns me on.

[Robyn2006]

I try not to go to far with it all. However, hate how once basic feminine adornments are not as commonplace as they once were. Simple things like basic makeup, lipstick, and nail polish (but please, just keep it red, pink or the likes… NOT blue, green, or good lord, black!). For me, I'll keep all that, thank you very much. Funny, sometimes I'll see some incredibly beautiful woman who almost goes out of her way to look drab. Always kills me… A paradise denied that I'd die for!

[Samantha_Smile]

My view on how I dress may not reflect what others see.
If
'Casual, not typically femme' is 1
'As femme as most girls dress' is 5
and
'Super-tranny-femme, OMG, WTF, you're a hot mess' is 10
I tend to move between 4 and 8 depending on mood.
I think it's pretty accurate though considering my GF is pretty good at letting me know when something is 'too much'...
That isn't to say I wont wear it, I will, but it just reflects one end of how I like to project.
The other end is just for feet-up days, or doing housework etc

Do I try to dress like a real woman?
I guess so, sometimes. Other times I dress to feel good.

[diana2013]

i hope i was born a girl and be like any sexy woman.

[Trisha65]

As I am living 24/7 as a woman, yes I try to dress like a real woman, keeping in mind the norms. I don't dress to draw unneeded attention to myself. I would say my routine would be like any real girl. Shower, makeup, hair, get dressed. In the evening is when I usually do my nails.

[Zylia]

I don't think it's a rather novel approach when I say I generally want to dress like an actual woman. Every CD can set its own goals, and this is one of mine. It's not just about not looking like a guy, it's also about looking well-dressed. The overall fashion sense (or lack thereof) isn't nearly as bad here, I think on an average day, about one out of six women that are about my age (or my female persona's age) has an outfit or style I would like to see myself in. I think it's a balancing act between dressing what's appropriate and what you actually want to wear; appropriate in terms of weather, the occasion, my female persona's body (I can't get away with everything) and her age (which right now is more or less my own age). These things are not set in stone, even women have quite a lot of leeway, but if I decide to deviate from those standards, it does have to look like I did it on purpose, not because I don't know how to dress age appropriately.

I try to approach 'fashion' in a way any woman who's not planning to throw out her whole wardrobe every season would: I get a few new items and mix and match. Some basics never really go out of style and a lot of items can be reused in a different context. I usually store items that absolutely no-one wears anymore and keep them until they are 'en vogue' again

[Lacyfem]

I've always wanted to look as much like a girl as I can. It's not easy though because I feel so fem when dressed and I want to look sexy but not over the top. Over the top draws too much attention and though love to dress sexy I need to blend in and be one of the girls. But yes do so want to look like a girl when I dress.

[Kali]

The reality is I pretty much dress like a soccer mom unless I'm going out with the girls. Tunics and leggings in cooler weather, shorts or skirt and a t-shirt in the summer. I would wear shorts more often, but I can rarely find ones that are proportioned correctly for me and the very short-waisted ones in style look odd on my frame, so I'm more likely to wear a casual skirt.

My wife would prefer I dressed like Bea Arthur in Maude, but I think that style makes me look blocky and completely shapeless, which is not flattering.

[heatherdress]

I understand and appreciate everyone's individual responses explaining their dressing style.

I work in a large, rather formal, organization with many, many "real women" every day, and see such a variety of styles and appearances. Casual attire with flip flops in the same department as 5 inch heels, minis and false eyelashes. Tattoos, spiked hair, shaved heads. Shorts, pants, dresses, skirts. Gobs of make-up and scrubbed faces. Age, weight, height, ethnicity and even job position or management level differences do not matter much. Women vary how they dress, even when at work, even with "dress codes". So do crossdressers.

Crossdressers usually dress by themselves, for themselves, often alone by themselves. We experiment, exaggerate, copy, make mistakes, have fun. We frequently dress the way we want to feel - different, sexy, happy. Some want to "pass", some don't care, some are out, some are not, some have limited budgets, some have restrictive partners. We are a wide range of individuals, as the great responses above have pointed out.

The wide range of fashion, style and appearances we see in the pictures and threads of members on this site is understandable, expected and - beautiful.

[Diane Edwards]

I've always dressed for the occasion, though it took some time and help to make sure I didn't overdo it. As my cousin always told me, "Less is more. If you go over the top you'll stand out like a sore thumb. Better to keep it real and blend in." It's stood the test of time. I've been able to pass for over 30 years because of that bit of advice.

[Crissy Kay]

For me, no way!! I did not get into cding to look like the girl next door. I want to look like the fetish girl of my dreams!!!

[crystalbath]

I like to dress and look like a girl with a bit of make-up on, but not so much it looks like i'm slapping it on and totally overkilling haha :P