holy-cow.se : I Probably Shouldn't Tell You This

By Dee

This happened in late July. Besides never thinking I would ever go out–period–I couldn’t ever imagine going out in summer. But now I do both on a regular basis. I went out for a few hours and stopped at the Savers near my house.

Savers is a chain of for-profit thrift stores that I visit from time to time. As they are a for-profit chain, the prices are slightly higher than other thrift stores (but typically lower than consignment stores), but unlike many thrift stores, they organize their clothes by size, which makes things easier to find. Plus, they usually have a nice selection of items (like dresses) and I can find multiple items to try on. They have two locations here, and two in Melbourne, Australia (as I’m married to an Australian, I spend about two months a year down under), and I’ve shopped at all four locations, both in boy and girl mode.

I was browsing through the dresses and a young woman walks up to me, and says “I probably shouldn’t tell you this”–and I’m thinking “uh oh”–“but you have great legs and should stick to short dresses”.

I thanked her, went and tried on some dresses, and saw her in the aisle and thanked her for the compliment, and told her she could make my day anytime, and she added, “you look great”.

Obviously, she “read me” and it didn’t make a difference (once I spoke, it would have removed any doubt).

Many crossdressers live in fear of being “clocked” (including me just under 3 years ago), but I’ve never had an issue. OTOH, I have gotten compliments on my legs, my dresses, my lipstick color, my nail color, and my bangles.

Fortunately, there is a postscript to this story. About a week later I was running an errand (in boy mode) near the Savers, so I stopped in. As they had a 50% off sale the previous Saturday, I figured they might have some new dresses to check out (yes, I look at dresses even in male mode–I will even take them to the dressing room and try them on).

I’m looking at the dresses and the same young woman (I now know her name, Jess) is looking in the same aisle. I ask myself, do I go talk to her? While I was deciding, she walked away. I decided, WTF, why not? I walked around the store, looking for her, and finally found her looking at tops. I asked her if she found what she was looking for, and she is looking at me like “why is this guy bugging me?” I had pulled up my picture on my phone–the one I was wearing when we met the previous week–and she lights up.

I told her I had written a thread on an internet forum about our interaction, and the positive reaction I received, and she said she meant every word. I told her I knew she did. I told her I was unsure whether I should talk to her, but she said that she was glad I did and that it made her feel good.

I showed her other pictures, including the pictures below. Her comment was “I hope you bought the yellow dress” (sadly, no). I then showed her the one I wish I had bought but didn’t (the black one). She said I had good taste in clothes, and I told her my standard answer, that half my wardrobe is from Nordstrom and the other half from thrifts.

We talked about 5 minutes, I told her my boy and girl names, and she told me hers (Jess). She says she comes to Savers frequently and likes the selection (me too).

As an afterthought, I asked if she would have known it was me. She said no. She said now she could see the resemblance, but before she didn’t recognize me. That’s always comforting to hear.

So she originally approached me, and then I approached her, and we both felt good about it. Fun. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen her since these two meetings, but if I do I will certainly go and say hi.

My standard advice. If you want to go out, make yourself presentable (fyi, I shave my arms and legs), dress appropriately, and go find a place to go (malls are generally good choices). Then do it. If you have a local Savers, I certainly recommend visiting them.