I was thinkingabout Crossdressing in public, but I have a couple problems on my mind about it. 1. I'm really fearful of the outcome of others' perceptions and reactions. 2. I don't want to be incompotent about fashion and look ridiculous. Plus, I'm trying to be pass convincingly. My body is pretty slim and already a bit fem. I'm thinking I could try step by step, but how would I do actually do that? Did any of you havely to slowly dress up gradually over time. Like in wearing underclothes of the opposite sex, and then progress to outer wear like shirts and pants. I'm disappointed and annoyed about having some acne scars, and I heard lemons are good at healing them, but very slowly. I did wear a corset, but eventually stopped doing it. Should Ipick up on that again?
IMO people that don't go all the way with cross-dressing look a bit silly. Maybe you could try some feminine looking slacks and a blouse. Matching shoes and purse with some make up for your face. nail polish for the nails. Do you know any drag queens that could give you tips?
I sort of know this guy, but he is extremely with everything in his life to help. Feminine looking slacks and blouse? I don't have a purse, but I do want one of those wallets that girls have. I kind of suck at makeup and nail polish.
When I very very first started, I did exactly what you said. Underwear. I moved on to to wear stuff I could hide under a jacket. It was winter. I had a support group at school, so I could just take my jacket off and I'd be en femme. I had a pair of pink shoes that were technically guy's shoes, although they looked a little queer; then again I didn't really mind, I am queer, it was college, and I was trying to get myself used to being a little different anyway. And yes, what the other poster said, absolutely do not be shy about asking anyone that does drag performance for help. They are amazing. And really looking back that's what made the most difference for me. Any time I could wear something unusual, I did. Not necessarily feminine things if I was in guy mode, just unusual things. Even a button or something. I have both my ears pierced right now. I did have a girlfriend going with me, but when I wanted to learn what my shoe size was I got myself to try some on in the store. The idea was to just get myself to stop keeping track of the fact that I looked different. And it taught me that people really will just ignore most of what happens around them. One other thing I did to gain confidence was to go to queer spaces. For me it was Rocky Horror but a gay bar would do the trick. The downside to this approach is that people will know what to look for. You aren't going to pass easily this way. But the upside is that you will have a sandbox where you can practice just being comfortable dressed as yourself. You can practice your voice, you can walk up to people and start conversations, the whole nine yards. I used to go out exclusively at night too. It just makes everything a million times easier. As I get more confident I do go out during the day as well now. I have been "clocked" a few times, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. As far as building up confidence, one thing that's helped is ordering fast food drive through. It really prevents you from chickening out at the last second when there's a line in front of you and behind you. Usually the people just are nice and don't care. I know "don't care" is one thing and "accepts you as a woman" is something else. Which gets me to the big thing I learned. There is literally no way to tell if you're passing 90% of the time. That's the hard thing about all this. You will think you are passing, the person behind you in line at McDonalds will say "I will have what he's having", the cashier will nod. Or you'll be having a really terrible time and you'll get "ma'am"ed out of the blue. Corsets I've heard a lot about both ways. They definitely do give your body that shape you want. I can't comment further since I don't use them. I usually get pretty decent results - aside from a moment of dysphoria when the person in front of me looks like a wrestler - from wearing a body shaper. They're really cheap and there's no boning to break, and when you're done with it you just wash it. You've gotta wear a bra with one. I have some pretty cheap breastforms that work great too. If you buy these online $40 is too much. The kind I have have an adhesive back that kind of scrunches things together. I also used to use a gaffe, especially if I was going to be out and about for a long time and couldn't trust normal underwear to keep things in place. One other thing, don't just find a cis woman and start dressing like her. That was my biggest mistake. Every woman - you and I are no exceptions - dresses subconsciously to hide her flaws and draw attention to her best features. What I mean is, when you put on a shirt, look at yourself in the mirror, and put on another one, you're eventually going to figure out what looks good on you. So if you're copying someone else's style, you're copying the style of a body that looks nothing like yours. It's really frustrating trial and error but it's worth it.
