A Matter of Choice

 Inspired by both Stana over on Femulate and Crysti I have been thinking back to my cross dressing days and how things have changed since then. It all seems like a long time ago, indeed it almost feels like all that happened to different person ~ maybe it did? On checking I see that is now over six years since I went full time, that of course also coincided with the end of my cross dressing! In all honesty I can say that at no point since then have I even considered surreptitiously sneaking into a Charity shop to see if they had some cavalry twill trousers or a pair of brogues in my size!

Very pretty, but not that practical

Although all of this is a timely reminder of just how much better I now feel about myself, and about how I relate to other people, I've already strayed from where I had planed to be ~ on fashion! Something else that doesn't seem to occupy as much of my time or concerns as it used to. Regular readers will know I have a weakness for shoes, not trainers or practical sturdy walking shoes, indeed not even for the footwear I wear most, steel toe caped work boots! NO, it's the pretty impractical and probably very bad for my feet shoes I still have a weakness for.

They can be very pretty, but I wonder if there is more to it than that, when I was young dress codes were very different, my father and grand father always wore a collar and tie ~ for work my father had separate starched collars, black jacket and pin striped trousers. Even at weekends they would still be wearing ties and quite possibly suits, but may have been a bit more casual with "soft" collars. My Mother always wore heels, and my memory tells me most often a dress ~ a skirt and jumper might have been a bit casual for her. I certainly do not remember my mother possessing a pair of trousers until I was in my teens and I'm quite sure neither of my parents ever had a pair of jeans! Up until the 70s men's and women's clothes were very different, I suspect for those of us past a certain age there is still a natural association between certain items or styles of clothing that are very gender specific, if you are a woman you wear a dress, if you are a man you wear a tie and never shall the twain meet!

Only on special occassions

My memory is that it was not until the seventies that we started to see jeans, sneakers, or tee shirts coming to suburban UK and it was a good few years before they became as ubiquitous as they are now. The clothes I wear most of the time now are very little different from the clothes I wore most of the time before I transitioned, like most people I know I can generally be found wearing jeans and jumper or tee shirt. It's still nice to dress up occasionally, but for me putting on a dress is very an even, where for my Mother it was her everyday garb. Where I wear trainers or comfy boots, my Mother would have been in heels.

On reflection I think I am glad that those fashion essentials are now a matter of choice,  and saved up for special occasions only!