It was a fascination with what it would feel like to wear the clothes that girls around me wore that first prompted my interest in dressing. Back then (1950s) I saw girls my age start to wear stockings and wondered what they felt like. Later, I learned about all the different items of underwear the girls (and young women) wore - and I still wanted to know what it all felt like. Clearly, for me, it was about the feelings. That is still largely the case all these years later. Others have commented that having to wear bras, girdles, corsets, high heels etc makes it uncomfortable for them to try to look like a woman but I see it quite differently. While today's women are free to wear completely comfortable clothes, that wasn't the case when I was growing up. A big part of the fascination was in experiencing those same discomforts that the girls around me felt: the tightness and constriction, the need to be careful about moving and sitting and the fact that women chose to limit themselves in these ways. I remember asking girls about whether their clothes were uncomfortable and being told they were but that it was just something they got used to. I didn't have any sisters so it was my unsuspecting girlfriends who answered my questions. One of them wore very firm girdles and I couldn't believe how tight they were and how they pulled her back suspenders so tight when she sat down. She said she was "used to it" and there wouldn't be any point in wearing a girdle if it wasn't tight. I just had to find out what it felt like for myself.
Yes, there is also some pleasure in looking down at nylon-covered legs and seeing the shape of "breasts", but I know I could never look like a real woman and I don't try. The feelings are enough.
