Biologically male, and when I can, i want to go dress shopping. however, the conversion charts online either make no sense, or are really complicated. Any advice/tips/simplifications?
depends on bust size and your shoulders. i know i have a little wider shoulders and a 38c bustline. so i take a size 10 in a dress. but you have to try it on to make sure it fits proper. also you might want to go with a A line dress to give you a more fuller look from the waist down.
use a changing room. First dress I got was from Hot Topic, and they are very trans and LGBT friendly.
You can go two routes. If you feel comfortable and safe, you can go to a sales associate and say you want a dress but have never worn one before. They have the knowledge and the training to help you as long as they are not transphobic. If you are not feeling safe, go the opposite way. Find a store where the staff is relatively hands-off (usually middle class department stores like JC Penny or Sears fall into this category) and grab several different things in a variety of sizes and try them on privately in a dressing room. Either way, it's not a bad idea to take your measurements in inches (or centimeters if more relevant) beforehand. Most stores and brands will have size charts available for customers.
Get a tape measure. I had one from Old Navy and maybe I still do. Anyway, most of the time I measured my bust, my waist (not your hips, but around your belly button) and THEN my hips (the widest part of them, too) and those three measurements worked just about every time. The one exception was this one dress I bought from Forever21 that I just could not zip up. Everything else from them in that size fit like perfectly! Delia's had this size chart thing where you typed in your measurements and it told you your size for their clothes. I was always a juniors size 9 or a medium in most things and their sizes ran true to the size chart. Like if the item said size 9 it ALWAYS fit me. Anyway, once you have those three measurements, a lot of online sites have size charts. Then you can check against them. Another thing is there are a few places where you can input your measurements and make a full body avatar you and find out your size and even "try on" certain outfits. Once you've kind of messed around with that then you can take that knowledge out into the real world and choose things. It's a good idea to try on clothes but if you're shy about that (and I was at one point), if you know your size really well you can eyeball things even if the tagged size isn't what you're looking for and know if it will fit. Have fun!
I go to thrift stores a lot so I would suggest (to anyone trying to figure out their size actually if you are afraid of trying on clothes in public or anything) going to a thrift store where they usually don't have gendered changing rooms and don't pay attention to you and trying on different sizes there.