The 2024 that was

 My last post of 2024. This has been a significant year because I managed to get out in public again after six years of injuries, moving country, Covid lockdowns and all the rest. 

I also enjoyed some cosplay fun and some makeup practice at home, bought and tried out a lot of new clothes, collected together a bunch of old photos, and lost a lot of excess weight. 

Here I've been able to write a lot about the trans community's promotion in the arts, and about positive things that defy current transphobia. It's been good to be able to do that.

 

Outings

The first outing was in Scotland with Roz in beautiful spring weather and that was a special day indeed: Scotland outing

The next was in London where I went sightseeing and met up with Stephanie in the evening: London outing 

In the autumn, I went shopping in Brighton with Stella: Brighton outing

I met Sandy (a.k.a. Mrs Sox) one evening in Bolton and we enjoyed an Indian meal and I had a random journey afterwards: Bolton outing

Followed the next day by a smart lunch and shopping in Manchester with Suki (a.k.a. Mrs Collins): Manchester outing

I haven't been out near my new home in Italy yet as I would like to meet other TGirls and go out with them. That's a resolution for 2025.

Scotland in the spring

 

Dinner in London

Home dressing fun

I've been practising some makeup skills at home, mainly around my eyes, which is not an area I usually concentrate on as I have to wear glasses and they hide any fancy eye makeup. I'm a bit lazy with the photography these days but two occasions stand out:

Trans Day of Visibility

Slim, sexy and windswept 

I had some fun accessorising a spidery silver witch costume at Hallowe'en and that was a very popular post:

Hallowe'en cosplay fun 

Photoshoots and ideals

People like photos; I've noticed that. I posted photos of all the looks created at my sessions at the Boudoir Dressing Service in 2004-08: Makeovers and photoshoots

 

There'll be more to come.

One very popular post was about what looks have inspired us in the past. Evidently, the polka-dotted, rara-skirted, big-haired, beribboned look of the mid-'80s pop scene is one of them, to judge by the viewer stats: What sets you off?

The overblown camp world of music and carnival seems very popular too: Transgender arts and culture (February)

Tips

I started a top tips page (here) to share experience with others on dressing topics. I seems to be popular, too.

2025

Thanks for reading.

Let me wish you a jolly new year's eve and a prosperous 2025. Stay beautiful.

Sue x

The other side

 So, you survived Christmas. Welcome on the other side. The diet starts now!

If you are lucky enough to have people in your life who accept you are trans, I hope they gave you a suitable gift. It's not so much the gift itself, though, is it? It's the acknowledgment that your other side, the less public one, is important. 

I don't have such people so I have been known to give myself that especially feminine gift. This year I was disappointed by the choice of hosiery, and the perfume I thought of was too expensive (or maybe I'm getting old and haven't cottoned on to the fact that inflation is still a thing). So I got myself some cheap chick lit and bought some fancy food instead. You may argue that a bottle of scent will last longer than a fridgeful of food (and make you more attractive than a big belly will) but I always remember a good dinner with fondness whereas scent fades so, you know, swings and roundabouts!

Apart from a gender-neutral look when spending time with neighbours, it's been nice to be dressed fully feminine this week. Yes, I'll post photos when I've got any that I think are half decent. My ageing face displeases me. Santa gets away with ageing by covering up with as much hair and beard as he can, but that's not the girly look I'm after. 

It's also been nice to have had plenty of time to prepare meals and cook really well, and to catch up with reading matter that's been lying round barely touched for weeks. And the warm sunshine has been glorious, pouring through the windows (and reducing my heating bill considerably!) I also remembered how much fun it was during those Covid lockdowns to do jigsaws and play games so I thought I'd repeat that this year where I seem to have a lot more down time than usual. A bit of jigsaw before bed is unbelievably relaxing - way better than overexciting online stuff. Must do this more often!

Mediterranean panorama in 500 pieces. Next up, the arty Birth of Venus in 1000 bits!

There's a lot of activity here over the next few weeks as the Christmas festivities don't end till January 7th. There's a funfair for grown-ups and one for kids, an ice-rink in the main square, another square is filled with a Christmas-themed kids' playground and there are innumerable concerts in all genres of music, indoors and out. I'm looking forward to the New Year fireworks over the harbour that are always spectacular. In fact, what I like about my new location in the Mediterranean is that there is always some excuse for a festivity throughout the winter months that are always so grim in Britain where I lived before where there are no public holidays or reasons to be cheerful from new year through to easter (unless you count Valentine's Day). Here we're anticipating the massive Sanremo music festival, carnival, the flower festival and the earliest Pride festival of the year.

Before the end of the year I'll be back with, I hope, some girly photos and a roundup of the year, which has been very active.

Enjoy any continuing time off.

Sue x

Season's greetings 2024

 Just to send all my readers my best wishes for the season, whether you celebrate Christmas or something else or are just glad of some time off. 

Well, here's me in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve and I still haven't got my makeup on or decided on what to wear. But I'm not going to stress about the dress, just enjoy the next few days and I hope you do, too.

So my greetings picture for 2024 is not from today but it still serves to send you best wishes for an enjoyable, peaceful and happy holiday season. 

 

Sue x

Midwinter cheer

 Today is winter solstice, midwinter, yule, the shortest day... 

So here's a short post! 

I don't cope well with the cold and the dark, as witness my recent bout of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). I previously described the summer solstice as my favourite day. So that this can't be called the lousiest day by contrast, I had a bit of a celebration with a Yule Lunch with all my favourite things on my plate. Because of how Christmas falls this year, the whole coming week is not conducive to anything but holiday stuff anyway, so I'm happy from now until New Year. And obviously, my slimming drive is suspended until 2025!

 

Christmas shopping ...continued

I had planned to treat myself to some fancy holiday tights but I confess I was a bit disappointed by the selection on offer in Calzedonia and other shops so I haven't got any. Instead, I've got some Santa-red nail varnish and I think an application on all four paws would be just right!

The above photo is from my Christmas shopping spree in nearby Sanremo the other day. The illuminations are not just for Christmas but last to the end of the national song contest in mid-February. By the way, the ice-cream shop Gelatè, centre-left, serves a really thick gooey hot chocolate (well, you didn't think I went there for ice-cream in December, did you?)

Shaken

There was a small earthquake here the other evening. The building shook and creaked a bit and I'm sure there's a crack in the plaster in the bathroom that wasn't there before. I shall have to take care in heels!

 

GRS success

This morning I got a lovely email from my friend who had her trans surgery earlier this week and is back at home. It all seems to have gone very smoothly and painlessly and she is very happy with the result. I hope she heals well. She is a very pretty girl, has approached her transition very maturely, has full support from her children and employer, and to cap it all she is engaged to be married, so I see a very happy future ahead. 

I'll be back with my annual Christmas message in due course.

Sue x

Marisa Paredes tribute

 A short tribute from a grateful trans person to Spanish actress Marisa Paredes who died yesterday.

You've heard of Bond girls; she was an Almodovar girl, appearing in six of the films directed by Pedro Almodovar, which really made her an international star, and it's that relationship that I inevitably focus on, and you'll see why. Bond girls are all much alike but Almodovar girls are stressed housewives, repressed Catholics or actresses/writers/socialites whose surface sparkle hides squalor and secrets. Paredes played all of these types equally well.

You may not have heard of either actress or director. But to myself as a trans woman - and to may other in the LGBTQ community - I don't think any other film director has spoken to me more forcefully than Almodovar. 

Trans characters appear alongside her in two films, All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre), "a magnificent tapestry of femininity" (Rotten Tomatoes), which stars Paredes as a stage actress and which has two trans characters, one we warm to (Lola) and one we don't (Agrado). There's the very different, almost Frankensteinian The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito) where, let's just say (the motives are complex), a modern-day mad scientist (played by Antonio Banderas), for whom Paredes is housekeeper, conducts forced feminisation (and then some) on a young man (with the sort of perfect results, albeit on an unwilling subject, that most of us would, ahem, kill for). In a third film, High Heels (Tacos lejanos), Paredes plays a singer who sees the act of a drag artist who impersonates her.

I think the main appeal for me is that in an Almodovar film, although being trans, queer or an outsider is accepted even if acknowledged as odd, the whole setup is odd, so it all evens out! Take Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas), for example, set in a convent where the nuns look after 'fallen women' but are all oddballs, including one who plays the bongos to entertain her pet tiger. Paredes is an LSD-addled ascetic who once murdered someone and cooks to assuage her guilt. Hollywood this isn't.

As a leading exponent, and in some ways the very voice and face of Spain's modern civic consciousness that moved remarkably in the late '70s and '80s from the repression of Francoist fascism to a country with a democratic constitution where people can now freely explore and express their outlook, their reality and their sexuality, Paredes has to be thanked. She and her sidekick Almodovar have certainly spoken powerfully to me. And not just through her work with him but, for instance, by appearing in Italian actor and director Roberto Benigni's film Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella) in which a man protects his son from the realities of life in a concentration camp.

Rest in peace.

English Wiki article on the actress including filmography here.

English Wiki article on Pedro Almodovar here.

(I've mentioned two Almodovar films with trans characters. There are more but the main other one is Bad Education (La mala educacion).)

Sue x

Packing the stocking

 No, my leg's not that fat. I mean it's been a week of planning for Christmas, and choosing and sending presents. I have to say that online shopping has been pretty chaotic, what with crashes, misinformation and trying to avoid special offers that tie you into dubious eternal payment schemes. Maybe it's just me, or is all this a general problem? But I seem to have done it and that gives me a relatively quiet week before the holidays. That's an improvement on previous years where things usually get a bit fraught at the last minute. So I'm pleased that I got better organised this year.

One thing I hope to do this year is to revive an old tradition of giving myself a treat of hosiery or lingerie for Christmas. After all, I've never had such gifts from anyone else!

One present I wanted to send abroad has, sadly, potential problems with import duties that I don't want to deal with now so it'll transform into a birthday present and I'll send it next year when the post office is a little less full of parcel fiends and taxpayers (it's tax paying season, too, here).

Here in Italy the 8th of December is a public holiday (it's a largely Catholic country so it's the Feast of the Immaculate Conception). It's also the day that civic Christmas lights are switched on and Christmas trees are put up. Feast of the Immaculate Conifer might be more apt! I have a full-size tree in my living room this year and it looks quite jolly. I don't have a chimney, though, so I'm not sure how Santa's going to get in to put presents under it. I dare say he's worked out a way into modern homes by now. Presumably through the aircon unit or something.

I did one bad thing and that was to buy a Christmas cake in good time and, well, I was feeling a bit peckish yesterday and I'm afraid I've eaten a bit of it already. My bad! So I'd best not buy any more Xmas food and drink till next weekend! It's probably time to put the bathroom scales away until the new year anyway!

This year I've planned plenty of time in pretty clothes and smart shoes during Christmas week. I bought a new eyeshadow palette last week and there'll be time to do my hair and makeup really well. I've also been trying out perfume tester samples and I'm homing in on Hypnotic Poison eau de toilette by Dior as an alluring new scent for the holidays.

The council has spent a staggering sum on the illuminations this year so they'd better be good. Tomorrow is market day and I have shopping planned so I'll report back. 

Last week I enjoyed the German-style Christmas market in Milan around the cathedral. 

 

Plenty of stalls selling food and drink, decorations, toys, jewellery, clothes, lavender and herbs, and so on. I wonder what there will be tomorrow in Sanremo.

Transition news

Just to wish my beautiful friend Stephanie the best of luck and a perfect outcome for her gender surgery next week. 

Another trans friend was telling me that it looks like she will have her surgery next year, as well as breast augmentation and facial feminisation surgery. If she has them all in one go, I just hope her surgical team don't get one end of her confused with the other!

Pink News sexual misconduct

I just thought I'd note the allegations against the bosses of this important LGBT news source and comment another day so this post remains mainly positive. Whilst reserving judgment on this situation as these are just allegations, I can't help commenting that I have known rather too many cases of people who fight for minority rights but who are toxic at work or home and the hypocrisy bothers me more than I can say. 

 

Friday the thirteenth

I hope you're not having a bad day. If you're in the English-speaking world, that is. There's nothing noteworthy about the day here in Italy, where Friday the seventeenth is considered a day of ill-omen. 

Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend.

Sue x

Milan fashion report

 What's 'in' this season: a light-hearted report from your roving fashion reporter ...

Hello, darlings, I've just parked up the Ferrari and have gone for a stroll in the Quadrilateral, Milan's fashion district. It's always a pleasant sight in the run up to Christmas, with special window displays, Christmas decorations and streets lit prettily. 

Via Monte Napoleone, the heart of the Quadrilateral, has just become the most expensive piece of real estate in the world. One square metre of retail space will set you back around €50,000, sometimes more, so even a small boutique needs an outlay of many millions. Ironic for a street that's named after Napoleon's ministry to manage government debt!

 

Via Monte Napoleone

It's more of a showcase rather than a place that actually does retail business. There are few price labels in the windows - frankly, if you have to ask the price, you really shouldn't be shopping here! And the fact that in many outlets the deliberate emptiness of floor and shelf space should tell you that here money should be no object. 

(There is a top tip from me right at the end of my post if you want fashionwear at reasonable prices in Milan or in most other fashion capitals.)

I'm not sure why the No Entry sign here is looking sinister but maybe the eyes were painted by someone who was squinting for non-existent price labels ... or one who found one and disapproved of what was written on it.

 

So let's have a look at some of the Christmas windows, some pretty, some over-the-top garish.

Here's Marchesi, a 200 year old sweet shop, always very elegant.

 

I think pink bonbons compliment the cerise font of this blog, don't you?

 

Mmm... In contrast, Cartier is trying to make a statement. I'm not quite sure what.

 

Hermès has gone for champagne-quaffing, jazz-playing horses. But of course.

 

I used to translate Acqua di Parma advertising briefs into English and their shop is always shipshape and not unpleasant, with greenery and fairy lights. Given that they sell cologne, it smells nice too. That classic shade is known as Parma yellow after its adoption for official purposes by the former sovereign Dukes of Parma.

These guys have gone for a more Santa's Grotto look.

Rosantica handbags has chosen a Russian nutcracker mannequin. A hand-made bag would suit any soldier, I'm sure.

This is a nice shop that sells nothing but gloves in all colours.

Loewe has gone for a marine look this year.

Marina Fossati jewellery is a bit chunky!

 

Plain but effective display from Bulgari.

 

Now, I always reserve a special spot for Valentino as their style and displays are somewhat unique. They first suggested to me that all-out pink was going to be the style of 2023 (which it kind of was but not as much as expected). Here's their store in the heart of the fashion district.

And some of the windows showing a decidedly '70s retro look, a sort of harem meets Abba style.

But it's this window below that had me agog! The gold minidress with sheer Abba-esque sleeves, turban and orange ribbed tights. So if you want legs like carrots, this could be the look for you...

 

What is more disturbing is that the next day, at the main station, this window display outside McDonald's had nothing but carrots in vases, each reflected in a large mirror to double the carrotiness. I have no idea what's going on with the carrot fixation around Christmas 2024, but I find it disturbing! 

 

Can you have too much Vitamin A? And if so, what happens? Presumably your legs turn orange, with or without the Valentino tights.

Back to the streets, now. This vintage tram is not spared retail excess, being decked out with Atmosphera interiors, including curtains!

And many large retailers also go for all-over advertising. Here's one of the many trams currently in Sephora livery.

To think that these classic streetcars still in everyday service are actually older than most in the tram museum I saw in Britain in September!

Enough of the brash clash with the classic for a moment, here we are in Via della Spiga, which is quiet as it's pedestrianised. A spiga is an ear of corn and the golden corn ears over the street are a nice touch, I think. I love the pretty little trees with simple golden fairy lights.

They're either native bay trees or fir trees, but every shop has one or two outside.

There's less in the way of dining here, but the entrance to this restaurant is in a very beautiful quiet courtyard and the warm Christmas decorations are inviting. 

 

Let me take you from the Quadrilateral now to the grand Victorian arcades, the Gallerie Vittorio Emanuele II. Sue's News & Views has been here before, of course, but every year is different.

A selection from the main four stores' windows, starting with Yves Saint Laurent:

Prada:

Giorgio Armani:

Swarovski:

There are, of course, other outlets here: boutiques, stores, cafés and restaurants. Marchesi again; their cake shop this time rather than the sweet shop we saw above:

Boutique with lovely bags:

Savini restaurant has been here since the arcade was built in 1867 and is a local institution:

Well, that's my necessarily select tour of the stores in the world's fashion capital this Christmas. I saw a lot else in Milan, like the Christmas market round the cathedral, ate out at various nice places, and also had an early Christmas dinner, but I'll save that for another time. I also hunted for and found a local inspiration for my American readers who may be fearful about liberty and democracy from 2025. 

Oh! My Ferrari seems to have been towed away by the police whilst I've been chatting to you. Such a bore! I'll just have to buy another. After all, money's no object, right?

Sue x

NB Sue's top tip: if you do want recent fashionwear, but at reasonable prices, then visit the fashion houses' warehouses where the last items in the latest lines and previous seasons' items may be found at much less cost, with some bargains.