Wedding dresses - a longing

 One of my sisters has just sent me photos of her recent wedding. I have to say she looks lovely in an off-the-shoulder chiffon gown.

Since she no longer needs the dress, maybe I can borrow it! 😁

I know that wedding dresses can be quite a thing with a large number of MtF trans people - there are whole trans wedding parties to go to, with dozens of brides! - but I have never owned a wedding dress. (For the matter of that, I don't have a maid's uniform either ... some will now start to question whether I am an authentic TGirl!)

When I was 15 - and I felt this was so wrong and bold, yet somehow so necessary, almost a trans rite of passage - I tried on my mother's wedding dress. She was really slim on her wedding day as I wasn't able to do it up all the way even though I wasn't full-grown! But it did look and feel amazing, a very special kind of garment for a very special day. I stared at myself in the mirror for a very long time with that dress on.

Like every girl, I've always dreamt of my wedding day. It's not happened yet but it's not ruled out. When that day comes, I will have my own gorgeous dress. 

 

Photo: Benigno Hoyuela

Yes, I will be wearing the dress. I have promised myself that. OK, I realise my wedding day plans have already reduced the number of eligible spouses! But we are looking for that special person, after all. The one who appreciates the girl in the dress for who she is.

Anyway, I wish my sister every happiness.

 

A dip in the archives

 Possibly the last wedding I attended was nearly ten years ago: I love a good wedding. That was a nice weekend event.

Recently I looked back at photos of Dawn and Kirstie's wedding, both trans girls. Both brides looked lovely and very happy. It's so good to know that same-sex and trans weddings are everyday events now.

The wedding dress weekend is no longer a preserve of the trans community either but is something women generally seem to be getting into more. A hundred-odd years ago both womanless and manless weddings (and other events) were common in colleges and institutions segregated by sex. A photography exhibition I saw three years ago presented a remarkable insight into this alternative culture. Not to be confused with the 'womenless wedding' charity events of the Southern US which were more for entertainment, these were the option of persons needing an opportunity for gender flexibility.

Photo: Charisse Kenion

 

Sue x

 

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Oggi qualche parola sugli abiti da sposa. Come tutte, ho sempre sognato di come sarebbe stato il mio abito ...

Sue x 

The fact is, trans people make the world a better place

It was five years ago today that something horrible happened, the start of a chain of events, that completely changed my life and I'm still living in random, uncertain times. Yet in all the subsequent chaos, it's my trans and gay friends who have been the most supportive, despite - or maybe because of - the fact that society often treats them badly.

A trans person: a danger to society! Brrr! Shudder! Run away!

 

To explain, very briefly, how it began. I used to live in an area of homes built uniformly in the 1950s. Some had balconies and on 17 June 2016 one of those balconies collapsed. To cut a long story very short, that balcony had been built with almost no steel in the concrete, yet had still survived 60 years. Unfortunately, that property was let, and the letting agents tried to cover the mistreatment and overloading it had had by making out that all similar properties were faulty and they would act to have our homes condemned. We might lose our homes if they had their way. This was all a lie, of course. They were crooks trying to cover up their neglect. 

The following week the UK referendum on leaving the EU left my industry in the doldrums for five months, and it has never properly recovered. The prospect of losing my home and my livelihood unexpectedly in the space of less than a week put me in a tailspin of anguish. 

Few of my vanilla friends cared, and even dismissed my concerns. But my trans friends rallied round. One who was a surveyor drove 130 miles to advise me and my neighbours on what to do about ensuring that our properties were safe from collapse. Her advice was taken up in the four streets affected and, after suitable structural surveys, we found that everything was fine. The one faulty balcony had simply been badly made on the day it was built - a one-off - and the letting agents who'd whipped up this panic were clearly dishonest crooks. 

As for the post-Brexit British so-called governments under psycho Theresa May and mendacious, corrupt narcissist Boris Johnson, I'd much rather deal with the mafia.

Many trans friends rang me, messaged me and consoled me in 2016, even those I hadn't heard from in a while, sending me no end of loving support. One sent me a hand-made gift that I consider priceless. 

When I was later hit by a bicycle whilst doing home removals, which wrecked one of my legs so I couldn't walk properly for two years and is still causing some problems, it was my 'alternative' friends who helped me with my last days of moving. Then the surveyor TGirl took me into her home for a fortnight to recuperate and learn to walk on crutches before I could move to a new home offered to me by a gay friend of mine. 

Covid has hardly helped with earning and socialising, not for me or for anyone. But, again, I have gay and trans friends contacting me all the time as I get by alone, as well as friends who have more alternative lifestyles and unusual beliefs. 

So it's my trans and gay and 'different' friends who have always stepped up. That's right, the ones society tries to discriminate against. Whereas my smug, hetero, rich, supremacist, transphobic or trans-indifferent 'friends' and family care much less.

So thank you, LGBT+ community. My friends know who they are and I have saved any embarrassment by not naming them here. And yet it is we LGBT+ people who have to claim rights from callous, incompetent governments!

 

Sunday saw my local regional Liguria Pride in the port of Genoa, Italy (see photo), which was the first pride event and the first major national event after lockdown. 8000 people turned up in the city centre, which was a good turnout under the circumstances. There's a new anti-discrimination law going through the Italian parliament that should afford good protections against the various phobias around. Intelligently, they've coupled LGBT rights with protections for women and disabled people, which gives a better chance of the bill becoming law.

Why should there be this need to beg for protection from the callousness of hetero or religious or extremist or ultrafeminist or other bigoted and ignorant people? 

If you're a Christian or a Muslim, didn't your saviour/prophet point out that the outsiders like tax-collectors and prostitutes, foreigners like Romans or Samaritans, were the folk who were really doing things right rather than the religiously correct? Yet my religious family, like so many others, hates people like me.

You're straight or masculine. Cool. Some people aren't. If you were as strong as you claim, as confident, you wouldn't be bothered that others weren't like you. You'd happily defend the fact the some people are different because it wouldn't actually diminish your life or confidence in any way.

My trans and gay friends have helped me unhesitatingly in these last few awful years. They're the good ones. Be proud of LGBT+ folk in this pride month. I am.

A warm hug to all you humane and loving people. You have helped me survive the worst years of my life. I think and hope I reciprocate. It's maybe a sign of emotional maturity that those who struggle most look out for others who also struggle.

A dip in the archives

 In 1972, a conference was held in Sanremo, NW Italy, a town best known for its music festivals. The conference was dedicated to "deviant behaviour in human sexuality". It wasn't exactly a gay or trans friendly event! There was a protest by gay activists, the first such demonstration in Italy.

Next April sees the first Sanremo Pride in commemoration of the 50 years since this protest, and the huge progress that has been made since then. I hope to attend. 

Sue x

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Il successo di Liguria Pride ci da speranza per il successo della legge Zan e la lotta contro l'omotransfobia.

In questa data cinque anni fa è successo un disastro che ha iniziato una serie di disastri per me che non sono finiti: il crollo di un balcone che ha suscitato polemiche e paure dove abitavo a Londra, seguito dal voto inglese per lasciate la communità europea che mi ha tolto il lavoro, poi il razzismo e la corruzione che hanno accompagnato quel voto, il danno fisico che ho sofferto quando mi ha investito un ciclista e il disastro del Covid che ci coinvolge tutti. In questi cinque anni i miei amici transgender e omosessuali sono stati dei amici veri e sinceri e mi hanno aiutato senza esitazione. Ne sono fiera.

Sue x

TGirl coping with summer heat

 I love summer: the blessed warmth, the long days, the light ... it all improves the mood, though I acknowledge the misery for those who don't tolerate heat well or have hay fever. I, on the other hand, suffer in winter from agonising cold and seasonal blues, so I'm enjoying things now.

It's mid-morning as I write and the temperature in the shade is 26.5C (80F), just how I like it. The open-air pool here is having a final touch-up made before opening tomorrow. I am looking forward to jumping in, catching the sun and losing more weight - I've lost 17 pounds so far this year (7.6 kg).

It's not so good that last night I had to battle four mosquitoes who were treating my bedroom as a restaurant. I took some hits but victory came at last, at the cost of cracks in the plastic fly swat!

I have always had problems, though, when fully en femme in hot weather. The wig and makeup are the main issue.

Wearing a wig is a bit like wearing a woolly hat, which is not what you want in summer. Advice from experience and wig suppliers suggests:

- Wear synthetic not human hair wigs 

- Wear shorter styles 

- Wear a lighter colour (dark colours absorb heat)

- Wash wigs more often (in tepid, not hot, water) to remove grease, sweat and hair products that add weight and reduce the passage of cooling air. Don't be rough as every wash reduces the shape and bounce of your wig. Use a dedicated wig shampoo or mild baby shampoo.

- Wear a sweat liner under your wig

- Keep your own hair short 

- Wash your hair and scalp before donning the wig and after you've taken it off

- Keep your hands out of your wig as they introduce dirt, grease and sweat

- If you are able to put your wig hair up without damaging it and your neck is not too thick or masculine, this will make the back of your neck cooler

- Sythetic fibres warp with heat so try to stay in the shade or wear a light hat or headscarf

These ideas help a bit, but the reality is on a warm sunny day you are going to feel hot. Sorry!

Keep cool in summer by standing somewhere breezy. Waterloo Bridge, London. With Stella, Linda, Stephanie, Rachel and Irene

 

As for makeup, water-based makeup is going to mix with perspiration and wash off. Switch to oil-based, preferably a greasepaint foundation as used in theatre and TV where hot lights cause actors to perspire. Kryolan stick was recommened to me by Jodie Lynn at the Boudoir dressing service precisely because TGirls can overheat under wigs and in corsetry. It comes with a matching powder that blends with water (sweat) to form more foundation so you can't usually lose your makeup even if you're dripping. There are other oil-based foundations from other suppliers to the entertainment industry. Oil-based foundations from regular women's cosmetic companies are not usually thick enough to cover beard shadow.

Kryolan foundation: thick but useful

 

 A dip in the archives

To illustrate the above, here's a link to my trip to Berlin three years ago in the blistering summer of 2018. A tale of successes and failures in coping with very hot days:

Berlin trip

A cool spot on a hot day

Sue x

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Questa botta di caldo mi fa suggerire modi di resistere al caldo quando si porta parrucca e trucco. 

Sue x

Scientific progress goes "Boink"!

 Yesterday my laptop went weird and panic came over me as it's the only one I have with me. Today I took it to the computer hospital and the whizzkid sorted the problem out in less than a minute. 

Yes, he showed me where the ON switch was! 

Not really! But it just shows how reliant we are on these things. Over the last twenty years I have accumulated 3 desktops, 3 laptops, 6 printers, 1 tablet, 4 mobile phone contracts and no end of other IT gubbins and doofers. But despite having had to use them for work and play every day for the last quarter century, I still struggle to fathom how they all work and interconnect. It's not my line of understanding. 

Because Covid has socially distanced me from my IT equipment, I have one laptop and three phones with me where I happen to be, and other stuff is scattered at locations elsewhere. It wasn't supposed to be this way and everything should have been brought together by now, but then a world pandemic blocking everything wasn't something I'd planned for. 

So I bought a new laptop anyway as an update and backup. Maybe it will help me sort out the electronic ID we are now being encouraged to have in Italy to interact with government bodies. I've had no luck creating that so far.

IT is created by a particular type of mind and mine cannot see the logic behind how and why things are configured and done in a particular way. I deal with international affairs, law and languages, and they are messy; human life is, though not necessarily in a bad way. The precision often needed in dealing with IT stuff is not natural or intuitive at all, I find.

That long preamble leads me into how intuitive I find being feminine. It's effortless as it's the natural me. I'm not saying I know what it is to be a woman; if you're a born woman it's hardly something you'd think about or discuss and I can't be sure if my experience is truly that of a woman as my body and upbringing were different. But being a man in the sense of having to do manly things in manly ways has always been alien to me. I have no interest in cars, competitiveness, sport, careers, status, war and so on that are the realm of the alpha male and of those who ape them. I don't get it.

I think it would help if science could fathom what causes some people to be trans (or all people, just varying in degree, as I think may actually be the case). We have some tantalising glimpses of what might be the causes in areas such as genetics, hormones, environment, and so forth, but no firm answers. Although science likes to be precise, I suspect the answers may not be. As I said, human life is actually quite messy, though not necessarily in a bad way. Persuading the ignorant and bigoted to accept life's variety and messiness is the tough part.

(c) Calvin & Hobbes: Scientific Progress goes "Boink" by Bill Watterson (1991).

A dip in the archives

 In 2015 I looked into how many people there might be who are trans:

How many of us are there?

I'm not sure there's been much subsequent progress in finding out. Research costs money, and money tends to be put into more high-profile, exciting things than looking into minority biology and care. One day we may know and if there's a natural cause then transphobic discrimination can be treated on the same level as racism.

The joy of being trans :-)

 

Sue x

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Oggi un guasto al computer mi ha fatto riflettere su il progresso scientifico che c'è stato nel campo di ricerche sull'identità transgender. Ben poco! Credo la vita che viviamo sarebbe molto meglio se la gente sapesse le cause biologiche della nostra condizione.

Sue x

Freedom! Knickers! Madame JoJo's!

 Today marks the end of Covid restrictions where I live. By which I mean you can go and do what you want (except bop at the disco), though masks should still be worn in closed spaces and public transport is still regulated for half capacity. But we are free!!!

 

Except we're not as restrictions can be reimposed under certain known conditions, or none, or as-yet-unknown conditions. The restraints and worries of the last 15 months are replaced with hope but also great uncertainty. Hmm, those Rumsfeld "unknown unknowns" again.

The one thing that I take from all this pandemic is that governments all over the world have been incapable of dealing intelligently with the problem but have preferred their own unco-ordinated and shambolic approach. The results speak for themselves.

In the 1990s, as I have said before, I was directly involved with anti-pandemic strategies as part of my work, and most countries had a policy on what to do in an eventuality such as Covid-19. In 2001, for instance, there was a series of anthrax attacks in the wake of 9/11 and, although that was a case of bioterrorism, the pandemic strategy was on standby. Twenty years on, we have seen almost none of this careful preplanning put into action, as though this was all a new thing. 

To combat Covid-19 people have given up their liberties, such as freedom of circulation, have lost their jobs and businesses, not to mention long delays in medical treatment for other ailments. And governments seem to have enjoyed imposing restrictions by dubious legal instruments and hiding their incompetence behind a barrage of propaganda about how we all have to pull together. Citizens are too easily swayed by authority and I am now even more worried about incompetent politicians and the effect of this unexpected overdose of power on their future behaviour. 

I am very depressed about all of this. About the mess that we are forced to comply with, about the lazy, inhumane approach of some governments that equates to genocide. I mean you, Mr Trump, Mr Johnson, Mr Bolsonaro, Mr Modhi... you who are all bullying, nationalist abuse and no actual substance.

Most readers of my blog prefer posts about my lingerie to those about the state of the world. So, how do we cope with oppression these days? Well, we usually ignore it and go for retail therapy and since I must buy new underwear (you should replace your everyday panties annually) I'm going to be buying a big new lot of knickers (yes, cheeky, I did put "big" in the right place in the sentence there). Fancy panties are for fancy occasions so these will be boring and practical and, no, I won't be showing you them. But this may help to give me an illusion of normality in a world of unreality.

As it happens, I lost a pair of knickers a few weeks ago. A pair in light microfibre blew off my washing line in a high wind and landed in someone's garden. I could see them but not get to them. So I just hoped they'd blow on, or even blow back. But the very next day a builder started working in the garden laying paving slabs and the knickers were nowhere to be seen! I could speculate on whether he'd put them in his pocket to impress his mates with, whether he'd buried them under the patio to suggest a murder mystery for future discovery, whether the lady of the house was accusing her husband of 'entertaining' other women in the garden... the mind races!

Please stay safe, be sensible and for heaven's sake hold your government to account.

Flagging up the issues of the day

 

A dip in the archives

I've been looking back at venues I went to in search of other trans friends in my early days of being out and about. On 27 May, for instance, I wrote about Leeds. Today I recall Madame JoJo's in the heart of London which closed a couple of years after my 2012 post. 

 

It's been granted a controversial licence to reopen after the controversial decision to close it! Being something of a London institution, it would be great to see it back. 

I've recently found out it was used as the set for the Sonata Café in Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut.

My post: Madame JoJo's 

Sue x

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Qui da oggi siamo in zona bianca. Dovrei essere contenta ma in realtà sono depressa. Depressa da quello che abbiamo affrontato, da non aver visto parenti o amici da più di un anno, dal modo in cui i governi hanno pasticciato tutto perché non volevano seguire le politiche guide su come affrontare le pandemie che sono state preparate decenni fa, dal fatto che ancora non ho potuto farmi vaccinare, dalla solita maledetta burocrazia italiana ... la libertà non è tornata, e chi sa se tornerà veramente?

Sue x

Pride Month - take care

 This month is Pride Month in much of the world so I'm wishing all others in the LGBT+ community every good thing. I hope that improvements in our lives and rights continue. 

Here in Italy there seems to be a lot of public support for a bill currently in parliament to improve the law in the area of discrimination. It's coupled with improvements on dealing with discrimination against women and disabled people, too, so it's not purely a minority matter. 

If you go to a Pride event, have fun. Take care with Covid advice even if you have been immunised.

If you are still invisible, in the closet, yet might still be reading this, be aware that you are very far from alone. One day, in your own time and if and as you wish, you can live the life that was meant for you.

If you are in a country or situation where you or people like you are being persecuted or discriminated against, be aware that a lot is being done within and without to deal with this. Take care of yourself.

Most of all we need to take care because of many ongoing campaigns in many countries against trans people. A peculiar, unholy alliance of disparate, usually mutually antagonistic groups are now allying to discriminate against trans people, notably in places like the US and UK. Having failed in the developed world to keep homosexuality criminalised, having failed to stop legal recognition of gay relationships/marriage, having failed to increase discriminatory provisions against gay people, they are now turning to the smaller, more disparate and less organised trans community, presumably hoping they will be an easier nut to crack. 

A much greater proportion of trans people are still hiding than are now hiding in the gay community. Most trans people are not out to friends or family, not out in the neighbourhood, not visible even online. People like me who are visible are rare, a small proportion of the whole. And yet having the overwhelming majority of trans people still too frightened to emerge from the shadows just isn't good enough for these anti-trans groups who, in essence, want to rid society of us. So take care, or rather watch out!

This is why we need Pride. One day we won't. But that day is still a long way away.

 

 

A dip in the archives

In 2018 I went to Pride in London, a massive and positive event that an estimated one million people attended. Here's my report:

London Pride 2018

Sue x

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Tempo fa ho visto che c'erano parecchi lettori di questo blog in Italia. Adesso che mi trovo in Italia, c'è meno gente italiana che lo legge! Questo si capisce dalle statistiche che il sistema produce. Continuerò a scrivere qualche parola in italiano su ogni post nella speranza che potrebbe essere interessante e utile per capire quello che c'è scritto qui in inglese.

Oggi parlo un po' della legge Zan e dei problemi che ci pone l'omotransfobia. Nel mese in cui normalmente si celebra Pride, dobbiamo stare attenti alla malizia di gruppi transfobici.

Sue x

Just friends

 This week I spotted something in another blog that succinctly summed up something I was aware of in my own life: 

"Looking back, I realize that interacting with girls was easy because I was feminine. However, dating girls was difficult because I had to act like a male and that was so foreign to me that I was lousy at it."

Stana's Femulate blog

Full article here: Going to the Prom

Exactly. I used to blame my poor dating skills in my 20s on having been to a boys' school throughout my teens with no girls to interact with. I realise now - and it has been pointed out to me enough by others - that most of my friends in adulthood have been women because I have always felt drawn to women's company, but not in a sexual way. In addition, most of my male friends are gay.

I have never felt comfortable in men's company or liked what men talk about - sport, statistics, competitiveness, jobs, cars, ... - or felt comfortable at their leering thoughts about women. I've always preferred what women talk about and the giggles we have. And even when they only saw me as a boy, my female friends liked my interest in their preferred topics, my humour, my gentleness, and that I wasn't looking to date them. Of course, later on many learned that I was trans and that made things clearer. So my romantic relationships with women usually developed slowly out of friendships rather than whatever it is men do to get a chick these days. 

Funnily enough, most women want a 'real' man, and then complain when he's violent, unfaithful or does nothing but obsess about sports matches. No, most women actually want a man who treats them unselfishly and unaggressively and has a feeling for their needs. So, ladies, why not date a trans person and get the partner who meets your real needs?

As for that old question of whether men and women can be just friends, I'd say your average alpha male (or would-be alpha) can't as he has a sexualised, domineering view of women. There's too much of an imbalance there. Things are improving as more women reach better positions in the workplace and more people go into higher education where half the students are of a different gender. Opposite-sex friendship in the world of desks is therefore fairly normal. 

I have always loved to be given flowers. Flowers are not for boys!

 A dip in the archives

 On the topic above, here's a short post I wrote in 2011 about being accepted as an "honorary babe" into a small group of female friends:

Honorary Babe

A few years later the same acceptance of my being one of them was reinforced, despite my never having officially come out to this group of friends as trans:

An honorary babe 

In the end, coming out to them was too awkward and they remained the only group of female friends who didn't officially know, although I think they had guessed for a while that something was up:

To tell or not to tell 

It's never easy, is it? But being friends with other women is easy if it's your natural instinct, and if you're MtF trans that may well be your instinct.

Sue x

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Ho sempre cercato l'amicizia con le donne, non con gli uomini. Quasi tutti gli amici maschili che ho sono omosessuali. La risposta al perché dovrebbe essere ovvio: perché sono una donna anch'io, benché transgender, e dunque mi sento a mio agio in compagnia di donne. Gli uomini non li ho mai capiti. Questa compatibilità sociale con le donne è un altro aspetto dell'esperienza transgender e non dovrebbe stupire.

Sue x

Bra

 Like most women, I'm usually glad to take my brassière off at the end of the day. It's a bit of a restrictive thing, after all. In the case of many trans people, it's an essential item for holding breast forms so you can't really get away without one. Yet it's also a uniquely feminine garment, which is the thing that especially commends it if you're MtF trans (and hated if you're FtM). 

Unlike in the past, I've been finding unusual emotional comfort in my bras these last few weeks, even if they're never that physically comfortable. A feminine embrace, as it were, in difficult times and when I'm feeling the dysphoria more than usual. 

A dip in the archives

Looking back again at my adventures ten years ago, May 2011 was the one time I went to the clubs in Leeds. It was a long way for a girl from London to go for a night out but a lot of my friends were going to be there so I booked a hotel and went. 

Leeds First Friday (LFF) is still going as a monthly event in the "gay triangle" of Leeds and has always been well-attended. After a meal with my regular friends, we went to the various clubs and it was great to meet others for the first time. It's a small part of town with a handful of clubs and courtyards. My one criticism is that the music in some was played so loudly that you could not hold a conversation (how health laws allowed the bar staff to work in such a high-decibel environment, I don't know). But the courtyards are cooler and quieter and a good place to take a break.

With Maddy and Gayna in Leeds. I miss these two!

 

For those living in the North of England and the Midlands, it seems a good monthly event for meeting up and having a safe night out. 

It was a long way for me to go and this turned out to be the only time I ever went. I enjoyed it.

Sue x

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Sono contenta di leggere che il comune sta considerando la possibilità di diventare ufficialmente "LGBT-friendly". Con altre iniziative come la legge Zan il mondo potrebbe diventare un po' più sicuro per noi.

Sue x

Måneskin

 A couple of months back I mentioned that a somewhat gender-fluid rock band, Måneskin, had won the Italian national music contest in Sanremo (here). Well, they have now gone on to win the Eurovision song contest. I'm no expert on music but I mention them as I like their style: feminine hair, makeup, lace and corsetry, not just for the one girl.

 

From the Eurovision TV site

Eurovision has always been a festival of camp so this is no breakthrough, and there has already been a transgender winner, Dana International in 1998. But now that this band will be in every magazine and on every chat show we might see both an increase in men wearing softer, more delicate clothing and also, as the band seem to aspire to reducing gender differences across the board, an improvement in acceptance of gender non-conformity and a corresponding reduction in male dominance. I think it's all to the good. I wish them well.

A dip in the archives

My continuing hunt for old photos brought up this portrait of mine, which is my favourite. Pose, lighting and angle all seemed to come together here.

Sue x

 

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Non me n'intendo della musica ma sono contenta che abbiano vinto i Måneskin. Mu piace il loro stile e il modo in cui aspirano a ridurre le differenze di genere. 

Sue x

The joy of sox, or hosiery tips and treats 6: conclusion - acquiring hosiery, then and now

When young and living at home my stash of girl's clothes had to be well hidden, so part of my liking for hosiery was the ease with which tights and stockings could be secreted away. The best hiding places were under the plastic trays that held the pieces for board games like Monopoly, snaking between the depressions moulded in the plastic. Even if people took the game out to play, there was virtually no likelihood they'd pull the whole tray out of the box. 

I used to read a lot of escape literature, too, involving prisoners of war hiding contraband behind false panels. I'm not sure my false panels were all that realistic and they got busted on more than one occasion. 

Hosiery was available everywhere, and was within pocket money range too, another advantage. 

But I'd gradually 'inherit' items that were deemed unsuitable by the females of the family, and my jackpot was won after my grandfather's death when his late partner's clothes, that he'd never got rid of, were readied for charity donation. The contents of an ali-baba basket with dozens of pairs of fully fashioned stockings magically diverted from the charity bag to my hidey holes. I tell you, when I was a teenager, I had the best legs in the business!

So these are some other reasons, apart from style, warmth and comfort, why tights and stockings are among my favourite items of clothing.

Girls with smart stockings. With Holly, Joanne and Ria at London's Olympia exhibition centre.

 

These days I just go to the shop and buy and I no longer feel embarrassed if I happen to do so in male mode. Of course, the internet and home delivery makes it all so much easier than it was when I was young.

Most supermarkets, chain stores, newsagents, gas stations and so forth stock hosiery. There are even hosiery vending machines. Cheaper brands are not necessarily poorer quality and you can get perfectly good, near-identical hosiery for less money than the smart labels. 

Silver brocade tights were popular about a decade ago. These Gipsy brand ones were half the price of the fancy label ones I also have, but every bit as good. I do recommend this brand generally.

In fact, if I were to give a sound piece of advice, it is not to bother with really expensive hosiery unless it's some very special limited edition party piece you're after, or you are very rich. Invariably, if I've paid a lot for a pair of sheer pantyhose from a quality retailer like Wolford or Tabio, they've got a hole in them on the first use, and that's £/$/€10-20 gone. These days I won't pay more than £/$/€5 a pair for plain pantyhose. 

So here are some links to hosiery manufacturers and retailers that I find good.

Retailers

For the classic old-fashioned stocking look, and all the kit, try What Katie Did or Secrets in Lace:

What Katie Did 

Secrets in Lace 

I've used Stockings Direct, and UK Tights seems to be well thought of.

Stockings Direct 

UK Tights 

There are plenty of other online retailers but I haven't tried them and can't comment on their services. Sadly, Figleaves.com has just closed down. 

All these companies deliver abroad. 

Brands

Here are links to some of the best hosiery brands. Most of them let you buy direct through their sites but you can get most through other online clothing retailers. I've picked the UK site or English-language page for the purposes of this blog, but most of them have state-specific sites and alternative languages too. In no particular order...

Wolford, the Rolls-Royce of hosiery, high-end quality from Austria.

Elbeo, quality, Spanish made.

Falke, German perfection.

Calzedonia, quality, style and wide range from Italy.

Jonathan Aston, great party wear. (For some reason I can only get the Australian site, but it gives you the idea).

Le Bourget, chic quality from France. French site only, they don't appear to offer English (how typically French!)

Cecilia de Rafael, smart style from Spain.

Emilio Cavallini, fun and reasonable value from Italy.

Tabio, quality from Japan.

Gio, for fully-fashioned aficionados.

Charnos, a personal favourite. Good quality to price ratio from the UK.

Aristoc, classic British brand with generally decent quality.

Pretty Polly, popular brand from the UK. Variable in quality; some hits, some misses.

Cervin, classic French stockings. Ooh-là-là!

Cette, quality from Belgium.

Platino, very smart Spanish hosiery.

Levante, Italian heritage, Australian owned. From gossamer sheers to winter woolies, all pretty good.

Trasparenze, amazing patterns to quality everyday sheers.

Gipsy, Italian made and best quality to price ratio. Recommended.

Oroblù, popular Italian-style hosiery in a wide range.

Pamela Mann, broad range and fun styles from the UK.

Pierre Mantoux, despite the French name, these quality items are made in Italy.

Gabriella, despite being founded only in the 1990s this has become a popular Polish brand largely because of its competitive prices and reasonable quality.

Leg Avenue, fun, party and sexy wear, but not best quality.

For some reason the Gerbe site is not working but these luxury items from France can be purchased on other sites. The Golden Lady site is being awkward so I will leave it for now.

Most chain/department stores, supermarkets, fashion houses have their own ranges. Especially good in Britain are

Marks & Spencer

John Lewis 

It's a pity that Top Shop, Debenhams and so forth are in receivership, not to mention those that departed this life some time ago. BHS, for instance, had surprisingly good hosiery.

Larger sizes

Of value to TGirls who find conventional hosiery too small, there are several firms that specialise in hosiery for taller or curvier women. Three that I have heard good things of are Snag Tights, Heist and Spanx

Snag Tights  

Heist 

Spanx (shapewear of all sorts)

There are, of course, many, many, many more manufactureres, brands and retailers than these all over the world but these are the ones I know best.

Thanks for reading my survey of hosiery. You can read the other five parts by scrolling down, by using the links on the blog archive right, or by clicking on the list here:

Part 1: stockings 

Part 2: tights/pantyhose 

Part 3: fashion and style 

Part 4: mixing and matching 

Part 5: practical advice 

Enjoy your legs, girls. They can be your best asset.

 

A dip in the archives 

I'll stick with the subject of hosiery for my look back today. 

Here's the most popular photo of mine from Flickr. I'm not sure why, that seethrough batwing top is weird! But I was experimenting with looks before coming out, and maybe seethrough tops and short skirts are what the internet is all about! But here I can again show off those fabulous John Lewis 15 denier run resistant sheer gloss tights that win my top prize for BEST HOSIERY EVER! 

 

Take a bow, John Lewis. Oops! You've split your trousers. Now that wouldn't have happened if you'd been wearing these.

Sue x

 

Cari lettori italiani

Oggi concludo questa recenzione di calze e collant. Come mi piacciono!

Sue x