Company Christmas Party - longing to dress

[stephenie3756]

My company holds its holiday christmas party AFTER christmas..much cheaper for the venue and more folks able to attend. As always, there are many of my co-workers that dress to the nines for the event. As a crossdresser, I spent the whole night in a pink fog with my brain just imagining wearing the sexy dresses and heels of my co-workers. Meanwhile, I am there in my suit jacket, tie and pants. And at least 50 LBD's in my collection wishing they could spend the night out. :) I wanted to tell my co-workers how beautiful they looked in their dresses and ask them where the got their dress and heels. I decided it was more important to keep my job than face a harrassment charge. My wife attended the event with me, another reason not to cross the line.

How many here on the forum faced the same situation during the company holiday parties?

[Leslie Langford]

You just enumerated virtually all of the reasons NOT to attend a Company Christmas party. For crossdressers such as us, it amounts to nothing more than sensory overload as well as cruel and unusual punishment.

Fortunately, I have been retired for a number of years now and no longer need to face this form of torture just to demonstrate what a "team player" I am by attending such company functions. Good riddance!

[Robertacd]

My wife and I found this gorgeous dress in November and made the deal that she gets to wear it to my company X-mas party and I get to wear it to hers.

I got to do it last weekend, they had their party late too for many of the same reasons.

[giuseppina]

I wouldn't go to a work function crossdressed, Stephenie. Despite the legal protections, it's fairly easy to fire somebody. The employer just has to invent a legal reason for the dismissal.

[Patience]

I've accepted that the only day I can go to work dressed is Halloween. In fact, since my promotion, I've been a lot more modest. A year ago, I wore my breast forms to work for a whole week. I am only now starting to wear a bra again. Pink fog slowly rolling in again, l think.

[Diane Smith]

I wish I had worked at a place where people actually dressed up for holiday parties. About the most you would ever see at our place (a high school attached to a liberal college campus) would be an ugly Christmas sweater worn with everyday jeans (or leggings) and sneakers. No risk of getting suffocated by the pink fog in that environment.

- Diane

[BobbiKay]

Not a company event, but . . . A couple of Decembers ago my pink fog was pretty thick. I attended the holiday party of one of my wife's clubs dressed. I wore a red blouse that she had given me in a previous year, a pair of Bill Blass jean-cut velour pants, and 2-inch-heeled boots that were unmistakably women's if I hadn't tucked them into my pant legs. Kind of low key, but my most public outing to date. Nobody said anything about my top that buttoned on the other side, the boots, or the sheer pink nail polish I wore. Funny thing about the blouse, though -- I hadn't worn it for the longest time, because it buttoned on the "wrong" side. Now that I'm out to myself, I treasure it. I still don't know if she realizes that she gifted me a women's blouse, not a man's shirt.

[Crissy 107]

BobbiKay, My guess is your wife knows it was a women’s blouse she gave you, women do not usually miss details like that.

[alwayshave]

Stephenie, I feel the same way about weddings. It's dress overload.

[NancyJ]

Totally relate! Those dress up situation trigger big time dysphoria. Envy! Nancy

[Krisi]

I'm retired now so no "company" to have Christmas parties. Where I worked, there were no Christmas parties anyway.

Dressing as a woman at a company affair would be a very bad idea. You should keep your dressing and your career as far apart as possible.

[Sandi Beech]

Yes it is pure torture looking at all the finely dressed women and having to keep you lips sealed. I don?t know if you saw one of my posts about this recently , but a bunch of us got drunk right after my company Xmas party in 2018 at a bar. I ended up telling one of the wives about my dressing and was worried about seeing her at the most recent 2019 party. I never posted what happened. She was at the party but left early with her husband so I never had a chance to talk to her. In 2018 she said something to me about how she had experimented with other girls at one time, and I suspect that was her way of letting me know she had some secrets as well. I think she did not go blabbing it to everyone so I am lucky. This year I stayed sober so there were no slip ups. I will not be making that error again, as I am keeping my dressing and work separated.

Sandi

[BrendaPDX]

I think we all do, but we can always dream:daydreaming:

[Cheryl T]

No more work, so no more company parties but went through a similar thing in years past.
My wife's company party was employee only so while she got to dress up for everyone I simply did it at home and had a private party. I'd wait for her to come home and then as we sat in our finest she would tell me all about the party and show me photos of everyone and we'd discuss all those lovely outfits, the food, the music and the fun. Vicarious as it was it was better than nothing.
My company didn't have a party so it was all I had.
Our support group did have a party for a few years so that was really nice. We'd have the ballroom at the hotel where we held the meetings and have food catered, music and of course our best dresses and gowns. I miss those parties...

[BethanyCross]

Wedding are the same situation. At least we get to see some beautiful dresses and have women's thoughts about them. Thoughts like "I think I would look nice in that one." or "I can't believe anyone would wear a dress like that!"

[carhill2mn]

I am sure that there are a great many here who feel just like you do! I had similar feelings when on cruises. I was sure that I would have looked better in the fancy dresses than many of the women did (LOL).

[kayegirl]

Fully retired so no works parties for me, but even when I was working, I would avoid any works parties like the plague. Only ever went to one and most of the employees stood around talking about work, all night long. The wives and partners were left to their own devices, bored to death. Once we were able to escape, I vowed to my wife that I would never subject her to that again.

[Nic J]

Stephenie, it's true that social functions can be pink-fog torture for those of us who are not out to public. All those beautiful outfits....:daydreaming:

[Joni T]

I took care of that "dilemma" a l-o-n-g time ago. If I need /want to dress up, I wear the kilts and Charlie jacket. Best of both worlds, problem solved.
Jon

[NancySue]

I totally know exactly what you?re experiencing. I get those feelings at any party...even TGIF get togethers after work. The libations don?t help much, nor if I?m underdressing, which is most of the time. I have to be careful to not stare, especially heels and hose, or how badly I want to chat with them about their clothes. Very frustrating.

[Teresa]

Stephanie,
I had a similar problem as I photographed weddings for thirty years , well at least I got to help the bride arrange her dress for the pictures . It's great not to have these limitations anymore , our social group has had some great open Xmas parties , just wear a lovely gown and dance the night away with all the other party goers .

Carole,
A Cruise as Teresa is still on my bucket list but I know what it's like see the ladies in their evening wear .

[MeshelleCD]

I would love to be able to dress at the holiday party. Although working in an ultra-conservative government environment they wouldnt appreciate it at all. It would probably put a bigger damper on my career than some of the other things that I do.

[Kitty Sue]

I hear you. I think Christmas parties ought to be banned as biased against us, or forced dressing cross dressing for all participants. :bonk:

[MiniRock]

I've never liked works parties. And at my present company, all of the parties are sans partner affairs. As far as I'm concerned, they are just work and I would happily accept payment to attend them.

[KrissyTN]

Hi Stephenie,

I feel the very same way, whether it's a holiday party, wedding or some of the charity events that happen! Also, we were on a cruise last Fall, and formal night with the wonderful cocktail dresses can have the same effect!

I look at it as a way to do some "shopping"....saying things to myself like "oh, those heels are pretty - I need to find those" ....helps a little bit!

[Jodi Yardley]

Hi all...I went to a business function over the weekend alone in male attire (with the exception of panties, hose and a cami) underneath. My SO could not attend, we had spoke about how wonderful it would have been for us to go together all dressed nicely. She text me during the event asking if I had seen any "eye popping" fashions on the women, I told her they all looked great! One younger woman got the attention of most with some really sexy, high spiked heels, they were gorgeous.

All the time wishing we both could have been there. :battingeyelashes:

[Pumped]

I've never liked works parties. And at my present company, all of the parties are sans partner affairs. As far as I'm concerned, they are just work and I would happily accept payment to attend them.

I really don't care for them either. These are people I don't fraternize with other than work, so it is mildly painful. The normally loud and obnoxious people just get louder and more obnoxious. The clicks are still the clicks. I get along alright with a few, but not enough that I want to hang with them.

At least the company I work for lets us bring one guest, spouse or friend, it doesn't mater. As far as getting paid, they are pretty generous, all the free food and free drinks you can handle, plus they always toss some money around. I walk away with at least $100, one year it was $500.

As far as dressing I really want to wear skinny jeans and high heel pumps, but is not a safe crowd.

[Kelly Pearson]

It's something I never have but would love to do, the thrill of putting an outfit together for such an occasion would be lovely