Dec 6, 2009

Cross Dressing your Age

I had a good few private hours to attend to my femme self with last night. Too much of a chest cold to share with the world, and truth be known, the event I begged out of was more my wife’s crowd than mine. I can grin and make small talk with the best of them but am acutely afflicted with an inability to remember names. I really don’t mind looking a bit daft myself, but hate to reflect poorly on Mrs. Bellejambes. These people are important to her after all.

So home alone, I set out to organize the wardrobe, accessories and whatnot, and to test drive a couple of newish mix and match options. Those boots with that dress?, this top with yonder skirt?, and etc. The exercise confirmed my belief that I have been shopping well lately. Not just for price, but for harmony with my shape, personality, and aspirations to beauty.

I truly had some moments in the mirror that made me catch my breath. You know the feeling (you full-time women know it too). Wow is the simplest encapsulation. I love the wow moments. Thrilling and calming at the same electric instant.

After snapping myself back to the moment, I took a good look through much of what I have acquired over the last year. These items represent the bulk of my femme wardrobe and is a pretty diverse rainbow of shades, silhouettes and styles. It runs the gamut from Lady Gaga to Liddy Dole. For those of you not obsessed with American politics, one of them is pictured here.

While I do not see myself pulling off any of Lady Gaga’s ensembles (figuratively dear friends, I am in exclusive relationship), I do notice a clear and happy drift away from twinsets, safe suits and other such pillars of the middle aged woman’s wardrobe. This drift is at odds with my biology: I am a middle aged something or other.

The high waisted stretch lace skirt from JC Penney is a look that 25 year olds I work with would go nightclubbing in. I am quite certain that high-schoolers will prom up and get down in it. My wife would feel terribly self conscious in it. And I love it. This put me to thinking – just what age am I? Do I have a split personality cherry on top of the gender expression cake?

With no certain answers are emerging, I thought to ask you. There is a poll to your right that will be running through the week. Queue up nicely friends, one vote per customer.

As I do put thought to it though, I do not think I am overly fooling myself. In my day-to-day life, I do feel younger than what the odometer indicates. When in serious business settings, a part of my brain is expecting a butler with a polished English accent to walk in and to discretely whisper in my ear,

Young man, a terrible mistake has been made, grown ups only here, you know. Do excuse yourself, leave with me, and please try to not make a fuss about it….”

So while I do pointedly maintain a youthful outlook, cross dressing winds up being a very real fountain of youth. It turbo charges natural inclinations. Cross dressing creates the opportunity to play with the hands of time and for that I am thankful. I really hope that I am not delusional though. I am still expecting a visit from the butler.

How about you? Go vote. I am keen to see if we share perspectives. Analysis to follow.


Happy dressing and etc...

7 comments:

Petra Bellejambes said...

All sound Lynn as always. List? Not one that i am aware of. I think, we must simply rely on some sort of intuition that we should have in greater supply than the next bloke :)

Always nice to hear from you ...

Jillian Page said...

Yes, I definitely feel younger than my age, especially since I have been transitioning. In fact, people tell me I look much younger than I am. And my non-committal male friend (who loves me . . . sigh) says I act like a 17-year-old sometimes. Gee, he better be careful: I'm jail bait!

I think all of us MtFs go through many of the same stages teenage girls do, no matter what age we start crossdressing and such in life. That's why it's not unusual to see a bunch of 50somethings in TG group settings behaving like teens. lol.

Enjoy, Petra!

I love your blog!

Cheers and love

Jillian

Nikki Fatale said...

Lady Petra,

What you are doing "works"! You have a wonderful sense of presentation from everything I,ve seen. I also asked this question recently after recieving a harsh remark while at the local tavern.

There are many clieches that would work in this discussion, but reallity is that age is a state of mind. However, it's also a state of class and presentation.

Transitioning often makes one feel younger (couldn't agree more with Lady Jillian) it has a lot to do with the obvious care factor. As women we tend to (in most cases) take better care of ourselves and of course properly applied make up can do amazing things:) I've almost mastered the texture hopper technique:)LOL

Wearing yourger clothes is absolutely OK as long as it's done with class & style. Lots of mental research suggest that the trap most transgender people fall into is trying to look like the fantasy call girl every man wants, but everyone can grow through that stage.

I don't know any woman (including myself) that's ageing without a fight:) You look awesome my lady so stick with your path. Seriously, look Joan Collins, Linda evans, Elizabeth Taylor and many more, they were "ROCKIN" well into the later years of life!

Never Get Old!

Nikki

Leah said...

Hi Petra! I can relate with that feeling when you look at the mirror and see the "wow' factor.

I know we are almost of the same age (I'm a bit older than you) but I feel that we can dress young as long as it's done in style and with class. I remember way back in the early 2000's, I asked my hubby if it's ok to wear mini at my age. His reply, "go wear it now while you still have the legs to show and stop wearing it when your legs get wrinkly ok?"

I guess you notice that even is I do wear "youngish" items, I don't go over the board.

I voted in your survey Petra. Glad to know that some voted in the category I chose.

Leslie Ann said...

In boy world, people have consistently guessed low on my age. Whether that's good manners, bad judgement, or my relative immaturity, is up for debate. Hair loss has dampened this effect recently, but when I'm girling up, I have plenty of hair on top, so that is negated. I'm about 30 in my head. Bare midriffs are out, but the knee still gets some play.

Petra, the things I would do with your fashion sense and a budget...

chrissieB said...

Yes, I had a skirt very similar to that back then, and have another one close to that style in my wardrobe right now.

Although I have a couple of twin-sets, one is a office suit and the other for special occasions.

While I certainly won't go ALL the way back to my heavy Gothic style of the mid and late '80's, I do still like to have toned-down versions of that image, and think that even us middle-aged woman can carry it off well.

Much depends on character/personality, of course... I can't ses Lady GaGa in a twin-set and pearls when she gets to middle-age, can you? :-)

Hugs
chrissie
xxxxxxxxxxx

Petra Bellejambes said...

Jillian - merci pour tout! I think you have an advantage, living on a lake, able to slip a canoe into the water and quietly paddle off. Now, thats a fountain of youth. I think whether we are due for transitioning or not people who come to their realizations later in life are deserving of some of the emotions and extremes of youth, particularly those manic teen times. Enjoy yours as long as possible.

Nikki - so glad to see your first comment here, and thanks for the nice words. Yup, we should battle against aging of the body (and spirit) to great limits, but not at the sacrifice of dignity.

Leah - Your look is perfectly consistent with your outlook. And your legs are still under warranty, with lots of mileage left on them! Bring on the 50's ...

Leslie Ann - I join you in the bare midriff shunning. Its a look that gives slutty a bad name.

Chrissie - Now I actually want to see what Lady Gaga looks like in a twinset with a strand of pearls. Thanks!

Terrific comments all. Love your company here...

 
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