When I was in college I took a design class and we studied a lot of older advertisements. It was shocking at how casual some of the ads were when it came to things like smoking and how sexist some of them were, but one series that stood out to me was the Maidenform Bra ads.
These ads showed very happy women doing random things from shopping to putting out fires all while wearing the above mentioned bra.
You can see more of these bizarre ads here.
I can only speculate what the purpose of these ads were. My guess is that the Maidenform Bra fit perfectly and you could wear one all day long and never feel uncomfortable in it.
Of course, as a crossdresser, the ads took on a different meaning for me.
I also had dreams of wearing a bra while I went about my day. Of course, I would be underdressing but still, I could wear a gorgeous bra while I did mundane, everyday things.
My daydreaming went beyond a bra, however. In time I dreamed of going to the mall en femme. I dreamed of sleeping in a nightgown. I dreamed of makeovers. I dreamed of skyscraper stilettos.
If I had known that later in my life I would have the wardrobe that I have now or would have the adventures that I do, I wouldn’t have believed it.
Some dreams come true.
Love, Hannah
Hannah McKnight 
Yes! I still can’t believe I get to live my life as Alicia! Even to the point where I’m serving on Jury Duty today as Alicia, haha!
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Hannah, Funny that you mention those ads. I remember, as a boy, seeing them and thinking how my dream WAS to wear one of those bras. Eventually, I did. First my mother’s, then my own. Those ads imprinted me. 🙂 Nancy
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I think that for most of us ads like these or the Sears and Penny’s catalogs heightened for us those items we so wanted for ourselves
The cute girls baby dresses caught my eye first as I wanted so bad to be my moms little girl and then as I got older it was the dresses and skirts that I wanted to wear.
Yes I think we all knew we were different
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Ah yes, the lingerie section of the catalogs caught my attention too. This brought to mind an ad for a corset shop, a place that offered a full array of women’s undergarments and fitting services. Their ads used to appear on local TV. Evidently it had been in business for a couple generations in its downtown location.
As a child I often imagined going to that corset shop and being admitted to that wonderful world. Time passed and as a young adult I happened to walk past their store, still operating in downtown after so many other businesses had left for the mall. At that time moment I felt a powerful urge to step inside. Alas, I was still struggling with self acceptance and a fear that if I stepped through that door I might emerge completely changed.
Fear won on that day and on far too many days that followed, Sadly, the corset shop has long since vanished, but I have belatedly entered the world it represented to me. Turns out my fears were well forunded. Once I allowed myself to step through that door, I changed. Or perhaps more accurately, I was accepted what I had kept hidden.
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The Maidenform ads of the 60’s started my puberty and the love for women’s lingerie. The ads placed in magazines were outside the norm of family publications and for Madison Ave advertisers a kick start to the sexual revolution. I’m sure when I tried my mother’s on, the wheels began to spin in my mind.
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I grew up in Ireland – later in London – at that time no Inernet – only newspapers and magazines. I was about 10 years old. Every Sunday my parents would get a newpaper called News of the World – filled with many female lingerie ads – one in particular was for a London shop called ” Transformations ” with a large ad in inside back page – with a main heading ” Become the WOMAN of your drems “. with pictures of lingerie / wigs etc. and a male dressed up in female clothes. I was facinated – and looked forward each week to privately check out the new ad pictures. That was my initial interest in what would become my dream. Later at about age 18 in London I found some Soho area boostores filled with adult magazines. One day I found a magazine about Transexuals – filled with photos of males looking like females – Drag Queens etc. At that time I thought I must be the only male person in the world who wanted to wear female clothes. I then found a magazine all about a French ” female impersonator ” called Coccinelle – a Paris France nightclub performer. She was the most beautiful ” female ” I had ever seen – it was filled with pictures of her in lingerie – dresses etc. I remember seeing her with her breasts and cleavage and could not believe how any male could look like this.
This was the beginning of everything that changed my life – even to this day – 60 years later.
Never ever could I have imagined ever looking like her – and now living the female life I now have enjoyed for all these years. Even today I stilll wonder WHY I and so many others LOVE to dress in female clothes. One thing for sure I know – real females take their overall beauty for granted – to me a sexy beautiful female is the most beautiful human being created. And so called ” shemales / transexuals etc. have the best body of all. And how about all the incredible fashions they get to wear – I never thought our world would ever accept TG females like it is today in 2022. WE still have a long way to go – but we are finally on our way to total society acceptance.
How about YOU- how and when did you start dressing as a female ?
Deborah.
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