Elegant dressing

[Olly]

I hope you girls don't mind me wandering in here but I figured a bit of assistance 'from the other side' might be useful. There's a neat clothing company called Hampstead Bazaar that might be of interest. Their garments are elegant and very feminine. The key to the whole look is soft fluid layers and tall girls or those with long limbs or broad shoulders can all look great in their designs. The web address is http://www.hampsteadbazaar.com/ for anyone who wants to take a look.

I just read this back and realize it looks like an ad for them but it's not, there are other companies who offer similar ranges.

[rejennyrated]

I hope you girls don't mind me wandering in here but I figured a bit of assistance 'from the other side' might be useful. There's a neat clothing company called Hampstead Bazaar that might be of interest. Their garments are elegant and very feminine. The key to the whole look is soft fluid layers and tall girls or those with long limbs or broad shoulders can all look great in their designs. The web address is http://www.hampsteadbazaar.com/ for anyone who wants to take a look.

I just read this back and realize it looks like an ad for them but it's not, there are other companies who offer similar ranges.

Olly - that's a lovely site. Thank you.

Tunics ponchos and khaftans worn over jeans are very much my style.

Actually I'm one those who postops who will wear almost anything. I'm not very gender conscious or conformist when it comes to clothing.

I've even done "Drag King" once for a giggle! Boy does it hurt to bind though! I don't know how some of you boys in the early stages of FTM do that actually! With an F Cup bust one night of binding was more than enough!

[K8]

I dunno.  That isn't my style.  When I've tried on things like that I just look like a guy in a dress. 

I've found that things that de-emphasize my shoulders, that show off my waist, and that are structured about my hips (to add a little volume there) work a lot better for me.  I also can't wear certain styles because I have a relatively long torso and short legs for a woman.

I have a book "Flatter Your Figure" by Jan Larkey that helps you figure out your figure problem areas and then tells you how to camoflage them and emphasize the good parts.  It has seemed to work fairly well for me (unless everyone is just being polite).

But, that's why they make so many different styles - we each have different bodies.

- Kate

[lilacwoman]

Got to show the waist off!  I'm 42/30/38 and love the compliments...
I see so many wannabes and pseudo-transsexualsd with the big fat male bellies and I think 'is there really a woman trapped in that body?'

And it's important to remember that the vast majority of females magazines have articles about diet and exercise.

[Hannah]

The whole nature of the average transexual means each of us will have male traits to overcome. I don't think someone having a belly disqualifies their validity as a transexual. When people talk to me about weight loss I tend to be skeptical until they put their money where
there mouth is, but that's only because I've seen so many people who didn't even try. Unless you've been morbidly obese you don't have a place to criticise the fat ->-bleeped-<-. It's hard, and I mean freaking HARD
to lose the weight when you're depressed and broken and getting judgemental crap from the pretty, sucessful girls who just want to stand around and snicker at you instead of being role
models.

For that matter, an absolutely GORGEOUS (and by that I mean sizzling hawt) friend of mine showed me her "before" pictures the other night. I'm sure glad no one told her she wasn't really a girl because she was overweight. Personally I'm plain on my best days, but if I posted befores your screens would all break. I see what you're saying in a way because my friend and I both worked our butts off to lose the weight, but I don't see how that sort of snarky little condescending remark helps anyone.

[Sarah Louise]

There are plenty of overweight genetic women, so, yes even when your overweight, there is a woman there.

Being skinny doesn't make you a woman, a woman is who you are no matter your weight.

This is not the place for unnecessary rudeness.

Sarah L.

[rejennyrated]

There are plenty of overweight genetic women, so, yes even when your overweight, there is a woman there.

Being skinny doesn't make you a woman, a woman is who you are no matter your weight.

This is not the place for unnecessary rudeness.

Sarah L.

Thank you for saying that Sarah.

As someone who was slim in my twenties, and when I transitioned and had my SRS had a nice hourglass figure but now battles with my weight constantly I can assure you that it has nothing to do with sex or gender. It has, however got a lot to do with age and a sedentary lifestyle.

And in actual medical fact where the weight is deposited has more to do with your theoretical risk of type 2 diabetes than it does with gender. Lot's of natal women (my neighbour for example) have very ample stomachs. Luckily my weight is more evenly distributed and so less noticable but I think there are a lot of mums out there who have put on weight around the midrif after childbirth who might want to have taken issue with anyone who wanted to question their gender.

[lilacwoman]

a plump woman will always look like a plump woman...but I don't understand why a wannabe TS has a great fat male belly - which generally goes along with a distinct lack of femaleness - but as we are now in the era of 'vaginas on prescription' when any man can go get a vagina and become a mangina I don't suppose having a female shape realy does matter anymore.

[rejennyrated]

Well to answer your question at face value do you think that such people might be depressed? And when people are depressed often they over eat... and when you overeat you get fat, and if you happen to have a lot of Testosterone in your system the body is hardwired to put that fat on the belly.

So in fact a really genuine Trans-person who is, as a result, very depressed may well be the very person who does get fat prior to transition.

I'm grateful that, transitioning so young I did enjoy that hourglass figure for a number of years. Proof here: this is postop me at 24. I'm now considerably more ample - largely the result of a depression that I got when my mother died in the late 90's - and it's only because I had already been over a decade postop and on estrogen at the time that I didn't end up with a huge belly.



So I really don't think that any of us should denigrate or question others who, through no fault of their own, are less physically fortunate. This is after all a supportive place.

[K8]

Women and men tend to deposit fat in different places, but like most gender differences there is overlap.  I've know cis-men who with large hips and butts and cis-women wiho carry their weight in their bellies.

Some people's bodies have a tendency to carry more weight than other people's bodies.  When I get fat I look chunky; when my friend gets skinny she gets thin enough to look chunky.  (But does she have a pair of girls! )

The thread is really about dressing to look as good as you can with what you have.  I'll never look like Jennifer Lopez or Rosie O'Donnel.  I look for clothes that will look good on my body.

- Kate