I have a new article for The Breast Form Store!
A few years ago, I made an acquaintance who would go onto transitioning, legally, medically, and all that. She was lovely.
After she was legally the gender she identified as, she berated anyone who identified as transgender who hadn’t, or wasn’t planning on, transitioning.
I was taken aback by her hostility but it made me realize that as some of us progress on our own journey, we become uncomfortable about who we once were. In this case, I felt not only did she not like to recall her life before transitioning, she seemed to feel that if you weren’t transitioning, you were simply a crossdresser. A fetishist.
I think many of us identified as a crossdresser at some point in our lives. For some, it was the only word for all of this that we knew, even if it didn’t quite fit. That’s how I felt.
When I started to buy my own clothes, I was thrilled to find designers who made “clothes for crossdressers”. Not only did they fit better (until I learned how to navigate the world of cisgender women’s clothes) but they made me feel that I wasn’t alone. After all, designers such as The Breast Form Store, En Femme, and Xdress weren’t just making clothes for ME, they were making clothes for anyone that was LIKE me.
My wardrobe is filled with clothes, panties, and shoes. Sure, some of them were designed for people with my anatomy but at the end of the day, they fit. “Clothes for crossdressers” helped me become comfortable with myself, and were a significant part of me eventually accepting and embracing who I am.
Love, Hannah
Hannah McKnight 
I enjoy when you “talk shop” sometimes. For example, it sounds like I went through a similar process of buying clothes for “women” and quickly discovered that nothing fit well. It was terribly discouraging. Then I found sites that made clothes for “crossdressers” which, which ended up being a huge relief and confidence boost. With sizing that I started to understand, and designs that were flattering. That gave me the juice I needed to get a measuring tape and pay attention to sizing and measurements and be critical of what I was buying online, not just being dazzled by a model photo. I’m still learning what kinds of outfits, cuts, and styles work with my body. That’s definitely a long-term challenge. But now it’s fun instead of frustrating because I’ve had successes in the past, and I’m confident that I’ll have more successes in the future.
Anyway, that kind of practical discussion is fun, and the kind of thing we can really only talk about with other girls who’ve navigated the same challenges.
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I’ve definitely experienced this. I have a few trans/CD chat sites that I go to and the girls who are transitioning are often weirdly abusive to those that aren’t. I’ve actually had a few girls try to bully me into admitting that I wanted to transition. The problem? I don’t, and its taken me a long time to come to that realization. Will that change in the future? Maybe, who knows where life will take us, but the irony of trans girls forcing their idea of femineity on someone else when CIS folks are doing the same to them, is just weird to me and I’ve taken to calling out that type of behavior.
Anyway, the fun part… clothes! And yes, navigating your way through sizing and different fits with different manufacturers is frustrating, but it seems to be part of the process and part of the reason I try to only go by measurements now.
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