If You Have Style, You Must Be a Woman

Style is a person’s means of expressing themselves through clothing, hair, and accessories

Fashion fades, only style remains the same
–Coco Chanel

Style seems to be very elusive at times, particularly if you are a beginner crossdresser, but it persists even to full-time dressers. In the beginning, I bought what appealed to me with no real idea of how clothes went together to express my inner feelings of femininity. I liked it, I bought it and when confronted by my wife or another helpful female, the response to my selections all too often was “whatever were you thinking?” My wife referred to my clothes as the Daniels Bible Church look, a look from our time in West Virginia when all the ladies wore their floral dresses to church. An awful lot of those early styles ended up at Goodwill.

The books all say that your clothes should reflect your inner personality but it’s not all that easy when you weren’t raised as a girl and experimented along the way to find out your style preferences. Fortunately help is at hand. I’ve probably taken a dozen style quizzes over the years and although the results were reasonably consistent, it didn’t take me to the next step. But knowing your style personality is at least a starting point. Check out this Style personality quiz from the Chic Fashionista.  You should walk away with some sense of your fashion persona. It’s probably true that that some clothes just don’t speak to you or make you feel good while others feel just right.

In my case, and it may be true for you as well, I favor a mix of styles. I love the classic look, but more often than not dress in a Bohemian style with bright colors and long flowing skirts (did I tell you my roots come from Bohemia…maybe it’s in the genes) Now aside from showcasing your dazzling personality, developing a personal style helps you maintain a consistent, pulled together appearance which some call style.

Now I’ve talked about Caryn Franklin before. Her website, How To Look Good, has a wealth of information and by defining your body shape, you can download her free books which talk to dressing for your body shape. These body shapes go by different names, but for us it’s normally a rectangular, apple, or heart-shaped/inverted-V. Most women are pear-shaped.

No one expects you to look like Kate Moss or Victoria Beckham who have personal stylists and unlimited budgets so they look like they just stepped out of Vogue when they run to the grocery store. That’s not likely to happen with our limited bank accounts (and other disadvantages), yet fashion experts say that you can look fabulous, regardless of how much you have to spend. Part of the key to becoming a fashionista is figuring out your personal style — then finding specific wardrobe pieces that highlight it.

Here are 10 ways to cultivate your own special look. You’ll find out how to buy clothes that accentuate your assets, learn tips for making the most of your existing wardrobe and discover how to look like a million bucks — without spending anywhere near that much.

Now all of this guidance is heading somewhere and that’s to Sister House’s Grand Opening and our Style Contest. So far, ten lovely ladies are competing for a prize of a fabulous corset from Hips & Curves. But we need more, many more. I’ve seen too many pictures of lovely transgendered women not to know that you should be sharing your taste in clothes with the rest of us. In addition to the prizes, the winner will become the Sister House Style Icon and featured in many of our articles. The judges are three real style experts, two with Master’s degrees in fashion.

Audrey Hepburn – Marilyn Monroe

And by joining Sister House, you can download my free book on Top Ten Fashion Mistakes by Crossdressers and How To Fix Them. Actually this book is good for most women, not just TG women. Or you can check out The Fashionable TG Woman blog which focuses on fashion and style for the TG woman in practicable and useful ways that you can apply in your everyday dressing.

Now I also understand that fully 40% rarely go out or if you do (another 20%), then you are unsure of yourself. If you are like me, it’s because no one ever taught me how to do these things. It’s fine to sell me stuff, but not knowing how to combine the various fashions into cohesive outfits leads to many of the humorous outfits  that I’ve seen all too often on Flickr and other crossdressing picture sites.

Kate Middleton

Lori’s column, Putting It Together in the Sister House Dressing Room is just one place you can go for help. And my blog is and will continue to provide you help in becoming a well-dressed woman. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel as my sources are many.  For instance Reah Norman is a fashion editor and blogger for plus-size women and her advice is usually appropriate for many of us out of our 20s. Reah shows us how to use this year’s fall fashions to create five fabulous outfits. Once you get a sense of how it’s done, create your own Look Book. Polyvore is a good place to start. Or follow your favorite style icons.

To me, the styles of Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn were unbeatable. But this year we are seeing a return to the 90s fashions with Drew Barrymore and Kelly Bundy (Married with Children) being two excellent examples of the fashion of those times.

But the most iconistic example of style in modern times is without a doubt Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, on both sides of the Atlantic. This woman has it all. What she wears is usually sold out in hours of the first photos appearing. And she takes it from the casual to the glamorous. You can follow Kate’s latest style on this blog and I have to tell you that her latest designer creation (silver gown) is nothing short of a knockout. Follow Kate and you can’t go wrong. She has become known too for her ability to look stylish on budget clothes so royalty or not, you can become your own style icon

Tags: crossdressing, fashion, featured, opinion, style, Tasi Zuriack

Category: Transgender Fashion