Petra’s Pantyhose Parade - Versione Italiana

Chianti and Maserati. Cappuccino and Piazzas. Chaotic intersections and hot tempers. Wonderful Italian things all. Petra is not a big fan of the Italian brand of football (big generalization, scuse, por favore, too conservative, winning goals scavenged on frustrated fields), but in matters of fashion it must be said that Forza Azzuri plays a wide open and spirited game. Such is the glory of Rome (or Milan I suppose).

Other glory emerges from Italy in the form of the all too scarce Glory line of hosiery, and gets a little blog-light here today. I made a glancing reference to clichéd “flashy and operatic” Italian characteristics in last weeks Pantyhose Parade as a look ahead to the then untested 30D’s under the thighcroscope this week. Flashy and operatic are the wrong terms. More below, but briefly here a quick recapitulation of the protocols of this parade ...

I like pantyhose (ed. you think?). They were at hand for my first cross dressing forays, and my living will stipulates Wolford Luxe 9’s (in black of course) when put to rest. And so hoping to further everyone’s appreciation of this delightful and womanly garment, I shop. I play the field far and wide, up-market and down. Gossamer Sheer, lustrous Matte and everything in between that I can get my greedy hands on. I then get as objective as I can and apply 1-10 scores across a handful of commonly desired traits (fit, finish, style and feel). Lastly added is a random and very subjective value. The subjective value is arrived at by posing this question of myself:

“Would I wear these to my own funeral?”

These numbers get grinded through a formula that rewards lower prices, and lines up the legs from best to next. Color commentary on the hose and the place of purchase where it might be helpful is thrown in. All published on Thursdays apropos of my desire to present an online version of “Must See CD”. Ahem.

Continuing now…

Our Italian entry is a great day-to-night stalwart. I feared that the high 30 denier would make for a coarse and plain finish, but this single covered Elastine© reinforced yarn yields a suprisingly nice dressy and high quality appearance. This yarn method provides plenty of torque which is easily maintained through long hours of wear. They fix to the legs very surely, coolly and comfortably. The run-resistant tuck stitching guards against dreaded laddering, as do the reinforced toes (good bye sandals and peep toes). A very satiny feel to hands and legs and a confident, subtly shining overall look. Quality finishing at waistband, and pretty scalloping through the sheer to waist construction makes for comfort and freedom to wear outrageously slitted skirts. Again, day to night at the flick of a few revealing buttons for the brave.

Value priced too for an import at $7.99. All of these qualities add up to a pretty attractive score and a well earned stride into the middle of the pack with 156.5 Petra Points and a running rank of 8 from a current field of 17. Bravo Glory.

Now, the sad news for those of us not taking Autumn in Tuscany – Glory is harder to find on these shores than a truly great Lombardy Grana Padano cheese. I found my pair in the Shapings boutique, and you might find the even sleeker 20D model online at the Femme Fatale Boutique. You will be happy if you do, but given the abundance of choice we all have, I do not expect to create a run on, or in, this very attractive fashion accessory any time soon.

Next week, I really can’t see from here. Which means of course it is time to shop. I hope to find some terrific new product and am praying for fresh descriptive language to describe my delights. If you have a favorite you have not seen reviewed here, just drop a line.

Happy dressing …

Cross Dressing, Contests and Curves

Faithful fellow wayfarers on these Voyages en Rose will note my recent entry in, and feeble attempt to win, a Victoria’s Secret giveaway, the Body by Victoria 3 Day NYC spa and shopping spree. I want to first of all thank those of you who did take a minute to leave no chad hanging and actually support this cross dressers campaign. As of this morning (Aug 26, with a little under a month left in the sweeps), I seem to be the best placed cross dresser. Hooray!

Now admittedly, my suspicion is based solely on a very cursory examination of the photo galleries of my fellow contestants. The girls look very real, but you know how good we are at cloaking when we really try. Nonetheless, I take some pride at currently being placed in the top 400 (#396) of some 6100 ++ entries.

With that said, I am a realist. I am just treading in these fragrant waters, slowly moving forward while being left in the wake of more seriously connected, determined and deserving competition. Which leads to curves part of the post. There are 3 types of curves that I have in mind are relevant to this post.

• Standard Distribution Curves (think of a Bell Curve)
• Power Distribution Curves (think of a curve high at one end, with a steep declining slope), and
• Feminine Curves. Hips, butts and breast that the genetic woman is blessed with that I am not.

Well the Body by Victoria contest is a real power curve. At the top of the curve with nearly 7,000 votes is Casey. No argument, a heart-stirring story, and a women worthy of a weekend of luxury. I truly hope she wins. In 50th place is Jessica with 365 votes. A range of roughly 6,700 votes within one group of 50 entries. In 100th place is Sorayah (159, love the name). This sort of rapidly diminishing gap between fixed data points is called a “scale invariance” and this is what makes a power curve look like it does. Here are the BBV contest rankings plotted out. Not very expertly, but they illustrate the problem, and my newly adopted reality.

While I rank quite highly, I stand absolutely no chance of climbing the steep power curve up to Casey’s admirable heights, no matter how sensible a pair of shoes I chose for the effort. Even with your unfailing, daily and generous support.

But there I am, in the campaign, seemingly unable to bow out to leave the path more clear for more deserving and more curvy contestants. Many of whom, I must say have curves to be envied.

It has been fun though to see my entry on a very slick and graphically compelling web site, especially a site in the VS family. I am a fan of their product and am happy to have been treated respectfully while shopping there, both en femme and in drab. Beyond that little thrill, I will satisfy myself with the purchase of a new Body by Victoria bra sometime between now and the real onset of Autumn. That should help out with my own lamentable curves.

It has also been exciting to note that many of you did throw a little kindness my way. Very much appreciated. And while the delusional dream of winning still danced in my head, it was interesting to consider just exactly what Victoria would do with a cross dresser who won. Cameras and microphones tend to come out for these events. No doubt there would have been a PR headache or 2 along the way, but perhaps this might have been one of those moments that helps those of us still in the shadows to get a little positive daylight.

Perhaps for a younger generation of cross dressers. Here is hoping…

If you have, or if you do enter just for the fun of it, drop a comment here with your profile link, and I promise you a vote in return.

Thanks, happy dressing and everything else…

and PS - the link to vote for Petra remains here...

Politics and Cross Dressing. Red Dress States. Blue Skirt States.

Keep the topics of religion and politics away from the dinner table if you know what’s good for you, goes the ancient wisdom. Well, this isn’t the dinner table. More of a private lounge really. And here, lost amongst the mirrors and a little dazzled by spritzes of fragrance, I will confess to not really knowing our etiquette in these matters dear friends.

So bravely forward we go, and again at the risk of boring the pants back on to you.

I polled this past week hoping to find out what the political leanings of the average Voyages en Rose visitors are. I do want to know more about you all after all. Additionally, I am keen to better understand how different we as a group are from, well, people who are merely juggling work, family life and just one puny wardrobe.

And here is the news – we are not much different than the country at large. We self-identify (arguably) pretty much the same way that our votes count up in national elections – “left” and “right” in pretty equal measure. Within the margin of error of course. The margins are pretty big here because very few of you did participate in this snap, unscientific survey. With that said, I think I have learned enough from the exercise to come to a really happy conclusion that I want to share with you.

E Dressibus Unum. Out of many dresses, one. (ed. sorry, I really cannot help myself)

I would like to think that 2 great American philosophical traditions are represented in our small numbers and voiced views.

Conservative philosophical impulses were at the very heart of the revolutionary labor pains that just predated this country’s birth. Ascetic wild men like Thoreau later sang the virtues of solitary, self sufficient success. “Mind your own business” is more than a slogan here. It is a way of life. This libertarian strain lives well with us today and does help inoculate us all from undue meddling with our private lives.

At the same time, and with very close roots, our Liberal traditions may stem, in part, from the collective realizations of a small population facing daunting challenges. The work of taming and claiming a life from a vast land might be more easily achieved and enjoyed by people with common purpose. A realization that our lives might be enriched if we do love our neighbors. That while we have a responsibility to provide a leg up on the future to our children, we surely owe a debt of respect and care to those who gave us our advantages.

I was surprised as I was watching these very even results trickle (whisper? limp?) in last week. I was absolutely expecting a landslide of blue sentiments. So even were the results though, and to me, so entirely unexpected. With reflection, and my morning coffee, they now make perfect sense, and give me a lot of encouraging thoughts about America in general.

I can now better appreciate how cross dressers, and the transgendered can see their path, make progress, and find peace on a foundation of conservative self-reliance.

I have always appreciated how people with common experiences and issues can share resources to get along better, more easily and perhaps go further and more happily than they might have done alone. That thinking is at the heart of my liberal sense of community.

And I am proud to see both traditions represented so attractively here on Voyages en Rose.

Comments welcomed. More lightweight stuff next time I promise.

Cross Dressing Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

It seems, dear friends, that I spent yesterday smiling at the world with the online equivalent of spinach on my teeth. My morning correspondence today included a comment regarding yesterdays post on Cross Dressing in America from Leslie Ann:

…I'm wondering where you got your population figures. I'm quite sure there are at least a million souls in Iowa. Might this be skewing your results?...

Hmmm. Fair question. And predictable answer. Answer being that your featherheaded friend Petra dropped a few statistical eggs on the way to market. I am not even going to bother with the forensics. Suffice to say that there are more than 32,555 people in Iowa. I would bet in fact that there are that many cross dressers in Iowa. At least on Halloween in any event. And yes, that sort of slip up would indeed skew the data.

So I quickly stitched up the split-seam, and having sucked in my gut a bit, present here the tidied up truth.

Iowa drops from the top of the podium all the way into the lower quintile with a ranking of 45th. Newly wearing the National Tiara are the Cherokee Roses of Georgia with a Petra’s Generalized State Propensity for Cross Dressing (PGSPCD) value of 39.51. To better understand the whole formula, please refer to the prior pose here.

Let me pre-empt a point here. I exclude my own IP address from Google Analytics results and so my narcissistic finger is not tipping the scales. I do have a good number of friends here in Georgia though. Being local does skew things a little bit.

That Georgia tops the list tough both makes me happy, and says something nice about Georgia. The nice thing being is that Georgia (OK, Atlanta) is a fine place to cross dress. Big enough for anonymity, shopping, and like minded company. A lovely climate (forgiving the too hot summers). Atlanta is a bit of a catchment area for people from all over who feel they grew up in a place too small to accommodate them in full. And as such, Atlanta benefits from the added color and spice that all sorts of curious people bring here. We are additionally home of one of the best connected airports on the planet which helps make Atlanta both a destination, and an easy place to leave. Drop a line if you are coming this way. I may have some good local advice for you.

Other Top 10 highlights:

The coastal North East region still dominates the top of the charts, with Vermont Clovers, and New York Roses filling out the podium. Sadly, no friendly Mid-Western states in the upper quintile. The Mid-Atlantic and South West too. Very happy to note a top ten appearance from one of the reddest of red states, the pretty Indian Paintbrushs' of Wyoming. I have always thought that it takes a real man to cross dress.

Moving through the national ranks. The second quintile (11 -20) is characterized by broad geographic distribution from east-most (White Pine Tassels of Maine) to west-most (Pua Aloalas of Hawaii). On balance, this is a group of physically large states with big open spaces, but where the bulk of the population is crowded into thriving urban centers. Conditions conducive to cross dressing perhaps.

The middle quintile draws a straight line between the Orange Blossoms of Florida northwest to the Forget-me-nots of Alaska, and burns in that most American direction, westward, through Sagebrush, Goldenrod and Jessamine. Like America itself, this is a mixed group of largely urban and largely rural states.

With our 4th quintile, from the Pasques of South Dakota to the Columbines of Colorado, the gently rolling prairies and thrusting mountain peaks of our cross dressing geography capture my eye and dominate the view. With the exception of Rhode Island and Tennessee, these are states settled in more recent times and more typical (as a group) of the American pioneering tradition.

Our lowest quintile does not furnish me with any easy insights. And somebody does have to bring up the rear I suppose. The corrected data does not change yesterdays claims. The dear Camellias’ of Alabama (0.29), Apple Blossoms of Arkansas (0.25), and Magnolias of Mississippi are still, relative to national averages, under-developed in many areas, including perhaps, underdressing and etc.

The full chart can be viewed by clicking on the smallish image on your right here friends.

Thanks for visiting. Any time you catch a flaw in my work or spinach on my teeth, do a friend a solid would you and let me know?

Happy dressing everywhere.

Cross Dressing in America. A whimsical quantitative analysis

Long time readers of Voyages en Rose may remember a post from January of this year in which I noodled out a statistical model of questionable integrity intended to help evaluate global cross dressing trends based on site visitor geographic information furnished by Google Analytics. I wrote this piece in part because I am a bit of a data geekette, but mostly because I was lacking a really compelling idea for a post that particular day.

The key spurious finding of my analysis was that The Seychelles seemed to present as some kind of minor earthly heaven for cross dressing. Who knew?

Similarly lacking a really compelling editorial platform (or even a nice wedge for that matter) today, I gathered a little more up-to-date data regarding American visitor distribution trends within my little world, and ran the numbers again to see what insights may be gleaned.

First great insight, we are evidently cross dressing from sea to shining sea. Yes, from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire to the curvaceous shores of California, all 50 states are fully and beautifully represented.

And where, pray tell, are the full length mirrors most frequently reflecting our images? A few surprises, again never to be taken too seriously, but perhaps briefly pondered upon. Not to be taken too seriously because our numbers are large ( we are somewhere between 5,000,000 and 15,000,000 going from conservative to aggressive estimates), and my numbers, like my shoe size, are small. Small data sample = lame conclusion.

But lets look in any event, and salute the stunning Wild Prairie Roses of Iowa. Yes the Hawkeye State tops, by long measures, the ranks with a Petra’s Generalized State Propensity for Cross Dressing (PGSPCD) index value of 40.51. Left in Iowa’s fertile dust are the Grapes of Oregon and the Peach Blossoms of Delaware, still glowing on the podium, and no doubt ready to assume the Iowa’s responsibilities should she somehow stain her sash. The North East region dominates the top 10, however all traditional marketing regions are represented here with at least single entries from the Mid-West, Mid-Atlantic, West, and yes, even the South.

How, just how, are these numbers gleaned. Lots of open source material put through an odd formula like so:

# of visitors from state / state population * Random Petra Value * 3.14 ... = PGSPCD

Why 3.14 ....? Because everyone likes pie. And if any of you can tell me how to represent the mathematical symbol for Pi in a blogger.com post, please drop me a quick line would you dear?

Now a quick word or 2 and some hopeful encouragement tendered to less well developed states. Oh, dear Camellias’ of Alabama (0.29), you Apple Blossoms of Arkansas (0.25), and rare, too rare Magnolias of Mississippi, be strong. Courage my dears. And a suggestion too. Perhaps you ought to dress and get out of the house on Saturday afternoons this autumn while everyone else in the state is distracted by your laudable and popular college football heroes. Absolutely nobody will see you.

For those of you with an interest in your own States’ relative beauty, leave a comment and I will be sure to post the specifics. Any other observations on statistics or cross dressing welcomed here at anytime, from any place.

And wherever you may be, happy dressing and everything else - Petra

P.S. A very sincere thank you to those of you who voted for me in the Victorias Secrets "Body by Victoria New York Weekend Extravaganza contest". If you are so inclined, you can vote every day, one time only. Forgive my brazen appeal please, but it is an interesting opportunity. In a couple of days I will have enough data to make some accurate guesses as to my chances with your fond help. Link here:

http://www.bodybyvictoria.com/#/Gallery/1940 ,

and full original post here: http://voyagesenrose.blogspot.com/2009/08/shameless-self-promotion-cross-dressers.html

Cheers