Never mind being born in the wrong body!...what about the wrong century! :-p

[MissTelegothika]

Hello there!

I joined ages ago...then self confidence dropped- so I disappeared, now decided to see if I can sustain the confidence & see this crossdressing thing through to whatever the best outcome is. (or Shaun from Shaun of the Dead would say "and wait for all this to blow over.")

I dressed from the age of 12, originally because I was & still am of the same build as the type of girls I go for (IE: petite.) When I was without a girlfriend, I was a sort of surrogate. Suddenly all changed when I was 23...and suddenly crossdressing became more about the fun of putting together outfits. I still only did it behind closed doors however & without any real effort. Then, last year, everything changed. I discovered Japanese pop-culture which is full of crossdressing males in anime, pop music & fashion. This discovery made me feel for the first time that I wasn't a weirdo. Something clicked, everything made sense.

Since then, my crossdressing has gone from the simple trying-stuff-on in my room...to finding I have a massive love for 19th century and Edwardian ladies' dresses & hairstyles. :daydreaming:
I feel a mysterious connection for the aesthetics & a desire deep down to look like a lady from this era. I feel a hidden strength and confidence, it all feels so right & natural. I do not have answers as to why this is though.

I'm still hidesously confused inside, worried and whatnot, but I've discovered and developed so many positive aspects since diving in to this - I've started sewing, learning about dress making & I've discovered a wonderful Vcitorian inspired Japanese street-fashion. I've made many new friends through this fashion & I'm now filming this fashion & its followers in order to make programmes about it!

A thing that amuses me though is that perhaps I feel more like I'm suited to a different century than to a different gender! Tis a mystery. Does anyone else feel just as passionate about a particular era as they do to aspiring to be feminine?

Thanks for reading!
Best regards,
Matilda.

[Babeba]

I agree, Victorian clothing and Edwardian clothing is quite pretty!! I love, love LOVE the late Victorian Bohemian movement and what was going on with the Pre-Raphaelites around Oxford.

I'm kind of glad I don't live then, though, because I quite like modern medical care! I don't think I would have survived infancy in any earlier century. There are definitely a few advantages to being here - not least important because we have all that Victorian and Edwardian stuff at our fingertips without having to wait for it to be invented! :)

[Stephanie47]

I'm a child of the 1950's and all my desires to be en femme are based on women of the 1950's and 1960's. Back then women did not wear pants. Just this week I was reading a little article on cross dressing while looking for somewhere to go this weekend. It reported a woman had been arrested in the 1950's for wearing pants and was designated a cross dresser. Egads! Times of changed.

So my preference is to wear a pretty dress and lovely lacy slips. Underneath I wouldn't go without proper foundation garments- either a garter girdle or a girdle. I wouldn't be caught dead in a pair of women's jeans. I also dress for my age, so I do not think I would look good in a mini dress that I love on all those cute girls of the 1960's. Fortunately, my choice of attire is readily available and reasonably priced. I wouldn't want to have the expense of going for 19th century regal gowns.

[Babeba]

If you're good at sewing, it's not bad to get the price for those 19th century outfits... unless you're going full hog on a handmade lace or hand-embroidered textile recreation of a presentation gown! There are still plenty of patterns available for Gibson Girl blouses, for instance, full skirts really are nicely simple and the devil really is in the details at that point.

Thinking of a lot of that Edwardian Lolita stuff... a friend of mine has this TO DIE FOR pinstripe light wool skirt... it is well bustled at the back and I just die whenever I see it. It just works so well thrown in with a modern top. <3

[Cynthia Anne]

I too love the 50's and 60's the everyday housewife! At least at home I get to enjoy it! When I'm out shopping and such I dress more modern! Hugs!

[Tina B.]

If I where to get into period dressing, I think I would go more for the Flapper era, I love all the fringe, and bead work, and the under pinning where sweet! I've been watching Broadway Empire, and wow, the underwear they have recreated for the hookers, is awesome, as well as some of the dresses. Even the well to do set have great blouses with awesome detailing and those great long heavy skirts and hats, I love hats.
Tina B.

[Karren H]

Guess time flies if your having fun.... Aug 2010 doesn't seem like ages. Lol. Except for maybe vintage corsets.... And slips..... Actually I love current fashion... The colors and styles... And the lingerie.... How could you not love bras that add two cup sizes? And corsets that don't take and hour and a staff to help you put it on and remove it! Lol.

[docrobbysherry]

OMG, Miss Tel! Who among us HASN'T been fascinated by the fashions of 100+ years ago at one time or another? When women were oh so VERY FEMININE!
And, NOT just their incredibly exquisite gowns, but all the accessories they wore, too!

I've ALWAYS been excited by corsets. But, back then, the lady of the manor even had to have help dressing! Corsets, bustles, bloomers, wigs, hats, and all manner of other complicated things needed to complete their outfits!

The "Lolita" movement copies a lot of the looks of those days. Except they prefer shorter, cuter, easier to move around in dresses! There r Lolita groups all over the world. U mite find one in your area! At the SCC, one CD became an integral member of one near her. Even tho the others were all GGs much younger than her, they were brought together by their love of the outfits! It was a wonderful, inspirational story! And, her pics of all the dressed up girls at their get togethers were FABULOUS!

[Wendyluv]

I love the fifties and the early sixties, these dresses and oooohhhh these shoes!!!!!!!

[Kate Simmons]

Yeah but it wasn't any picnic for sure. I was a pioneer wife in the 1800's in a previous life. I died fairly young at 35 of complications in childbirth. I loved being a woman even though it was hard. There was a reason women in the old west wore high heeled boots and it wasn't for style.:heehee:My next incarnation was male and the next female, seems like I missed being a woman. I do have an affinity for certain time periods though and those are the reasons.:)

[Lynn Marie]

My affinity seems to be the 1940's, during the war years. For some reason I really identify with the USAAF of that time. I was born in 1943, on the day of the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission. Maybe that has something to do with it.

My dressing is most definitely 1950's. Heels, stockings, and foundational underthings. Everything changed so radically in the 60's, that it all just seems a blur. Then again if it didn't, how could you say you were there!

[Stitch]

Sadly the era I would have liked to have been born into doesn't exist. :(

I'm very much in love with the fantasy genre, things Lord of the Rings. I would have loved to have been a ranger in the woods completely wild and free. No make up, no fanciness. Left completely to my own devices out in the great wild world without social pressures. I bet I'd rock the elvish wood hunter type garb... but I'd miss my glasses terribly lol.

*sigh* Guess I'll stick to making female characters in fantasy Video games then :(

[MissTelegothika]

Hello there all!

Wow, wonderful to spy such a plethora of era's you all have a particular fondness of. You've all said something intriguing and unique, I wish I could comment on everything as its great to finally air stuff like this & talk about these topics. :-) So many valid points too regarding the negatives and positives. I'd Its amazing to think how many eras of clothing and the social standing of women has changed in a relatively short space of time.

I'll readily admit that if I was actually zapped back to 1873 (yep, Life on Mars style! :-p ) I'd probably be pleading with any primitive electrical appliance to get me back to 2011. Life then must have been riddled with crushing responsibility & knowing one' place. I sometimes wonder, if I was a lady back in the C19th, whether I'd want to actually crossdress as a man. Perhaps I would just like to play with status quo. My imagination has no respect for my physical form or for convention either, so it probably would go for the opposite gender.

Ladies were so stylised back then, even more so than now I'd say. Even in the early 1800's when dresses were mostly simple muslin affairs (apart from Court dresses which were still rather excitable confections,) there was so much elegance & femininity in the designs. I find it all so captivating. There's a power to stylised femininity as well of course, as men found out during the late Victorian period when women really started adorning themselves and shaping their bodies to be fashionable. They did it for their own sakes though, which naturally annoyed the chaps somewhat. Women who chased fashionable ideals through the use of stays (corsets) and vaious layers of artifice were treated with some serious derision by society!

Anywho, I could go on! I don't a huge amount, but I'm reading lots of books and websites, trying to soak all the information up. Its utterly fascinating. It was assuming to also find out that one of the major figures in ladies high fashion in the mid-late Victorian era was a man. He was called Charles Worth. I find him to be absolutely awesome as he introduced the "crinolette" which later turned into the famous bustle.

Oh the Bohemians...scandalous! And the "rational dress movement." Tsk :-p Bloomers indeed! Unfortunately I'm not that practical with my clothes. I'd rather tight-lace & adorn myself with enough drapery to soft-furnish an elephant.
Oh and Lolita! So glad thats been brought up. I hate using the name for that fashion as of course it always sets off alarm bells ringing. Do you wear Lolita docrobbysherry? It is beautiful and so many different styles & influences direct the fashion. I went to my first Lolita meet early this year and since then I've been to many more (mostly in a filming capacity.) I have a very simple Lolita co-ordinate (outfit) but nothing as high quality as Lolita from the famous stores such as Baby, The Stars Shine Bright or Metamorphose as yet. *weeps*

As for the flapper era - my mum loves that era, as well as the '30's. I've informed her about my crossdressing & my prefference for period. So I now joke that we are natural enemies in terms of art & fashion styles. I'll go as far as Art Nouveau & definitely the Gibson Girl look, but that's about it. Having said that though, the '20's & 30's do have style though, its just not my thing. There used to be a period drama in the UK in the '90's that followed two sisters as they became fashion designers in the '20's - it was called the House of Elliot. Excellent attention to detail the show had. Theres some good clips on youtube of it.

The 50's and 60's had some great silhouettes, I can see why you'd love the era as well as being a child of it. The '50's definitely had more elegance and style than the '80's! I envy ye there Stephanie47.

As for the fantasy-dress world. I think thats the best of all worlds! Do you cosplay Stitch?

I hope I didn't ramble too much, just excited about this convo and saying hi to you all (in a way!) :-)

[pinto]

The victorian time was great and i really would like to be in those dresses and corsetts. Sure, some will tell now "beware of what you wish for, those things are a torture" but this doesn't bother me. When crossdressing i always use very tight bras, panties etc. so that i really feel that i am in femme mode. I would trade my "bodily freedom" to the victorian corsetts immediately.
Yes maybe we are born in the wrong century. Many old things come back, hopefully this too.

[Rachel Morley]

I must admit I do love the look of corseted waists and log sleeved, high necked dresses that have full length "billowing skirts" ... think Gone With The Wind :)