Stuff 121: Is a Dress Enough?

By J. J. Atwell

Do You Go All In?

When you get dressed, do you go all in? All in as in skin out, top to bottom, hair, nails, makeup? Or are you satisfied with just putting on just a piece of femme clothing? Is just dressing in girl clothes enough for you? Or do you also need to feel beautiful so you go “all the way?” Do you do your hair? Makeup? Nails? (Why do I have so many questions?)

Without questions, this column and our lives in general, would be pretty boring. So to address my questions, I’m first going to postulate that we are crossdressers, without planning on transitioning. If that’s not you, thanks for reading anyway. 

For me, the degree of getting dressed varies. Sometimes it’s enough just to put on some shapewear and a loose top over leggings while not bothering with the hair, etc. It isn’t necessary for me to go with the whole wig/makeup thing to enjoy being dressed. Yes, at that point, I’m just an obvious man in women’s clothes. But it’s fun. Of course that only works if I’m staying home. 

Other times, I feel the need to go all the way trying my hardest to appear authentically female when dressed. On those occasions it seems to me that crossdressing is much more that just wearing the clothes. Instead, it’s about wanting to look and act as female as possible. That’s especially important when I’m going out of the house. 

So leaving this section with yet another question: do you dress fully every time? Or do you sometimes just stick with some basics? Please let me know by posting a comment or emailing me.

Mary Quant

Just wanted to write a few lines about the contribution Mary Quant made to our community. 

“Who is Mary Quant?” some of you are asking. 

She is a British designer widely credited with popularizing the miniskirt in the ’60’s. According to Wikipedia, one of the reasons she promoted the mini was that they were less restrictive allowing women to run faster when trying to catch a bus. I suppose that’s true for whoever you might be chasing. Or running from. 

As far as I know, she had no special tie to the Femulate community, but I think we should all thank her for the greater freedom we enjoy when dressed. My picture above was created using ChatGPT just to see how I might look in a miniskirt. 

Mary died in 2023, but her mini lives on. 

I’ll Be Back

Hope you enjoyed thinking about and answering my questions. I hope to include some of your experiences in a future Stuff. I welcome comments and suggestions here on Stana’s page or by email at Jenn6nov at-sign gmail dot com.

Wearing Free People dress and Saint Laurent shoes.

Steven Weber femulating on television’s The Comedians.