Butch Attire & Fashion

[Duchess]

[nycfem]

MODERATION


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[GraffitiBoi]

Happy to see this article in Curve Magazine!

http://www.curvemag.com/Curve-Magazi...Tailored-Life/

[Sun]

All I have to say is:

The shoe department at Nordstrom.

[Duchess]

[macele]

kd has had several hair styles that i've liked. she's got the butch attire and fashion going on. there's no one like her. unique. original.

[Ascot]

That's another good thing about turning 50. A couple pieces I've had since college are still in great, if slightly shopworn in a charming way shape and are now considered vintage. I find it quite amusing and great fun. The one that most comes to mind is a brownish, full length, herringbone tweed overcoat from Brooks Brothers. Every time I see that narrow, silk, navy blue label with the yellow script my heart melts a little.

[*Anya*]

NY TIMES July 2, 2013

By E. ALEX JUNG

Elaine David and Joy Evans were set to be married in Kauai, Hawaii, in April, but they had a problem: Ms. David didn’t know where she was going to get the vest and pants she wanted. Finding a wedding dress had been easy enough for Ms. Evans, who went to a bridal shop in Sacramento, where she bought a strapless lavender dress. For Ms. David, however, it wasn’t so easy.

“I really didn’t want to wear a dress for the wedding,” said Ms. David, a 33-year-old software engineer from Sunnyvale, Calif., who generally prefers casual clothes like jeans and a T-shirt. “That’s not how I really identify myself so I started looking for clothing choices.” Ms. David doesn’t wear dresses, which means finding formal wear can be a fraught process.

She did what many masculine women do. She turned to the boys’ department. “It’s a compromise, going to the boys’ section,” she said. Ms. David is 5 feet 1 inch tall with broad shoulders from years of practicing Jeet Kune Do. “The boys’ section is not going to be a perfect fit because they don’t accommodate breasts, because, well, they’re not meant to.”

Zee Amador of ZShots

Elaine David and Joy Evans, right, on their wedding day in Kauai, Hawaii. Ms. David wore a Tomboy Tailors suit.

Then Ms. David discovered a number of brands that fit her sartorial needs online. She ended up visiting Tomboy Tailors, a clothier specializing in made-to-measure suits. She chose a lavender blue vest with matching pants and wore them on her wedding day.

Tomboy Tailors is one of several brands that have emerged within the past few years catering specifically to masculine women, transgender men and others who fall outside the conventional clientele for men’s wear.

“I started Tomboy Tailors after years of dealing with ill-fitting suits and poor customer service and I knew that other people must be having that experience,” said Zel Anders, the founder and owner of Tomboy Tailors, whose store opened in February just off Market Street in downtown San Francisco.

“There are, I suspect, hundreds of thousands of women like me who prefer to wear men’s suits,” she said.

Major retailers have begun to take notice of the emerging market: Kenneth Cole is producing some of the men’s shoes in smaller sizes to be sold at Tomboy Tailors in September.

DeAngela Cooks

A look by the Brooklyn-based brand, Marimacho.

Other brands have sprung up online in recent years, including Fourteen, which spawned from a wedding planning company called 14 Stories, and the Brooklyn-based Marimacho, whose most recent collection featured bathing suits based on 1920s men’s swimwear.

Going to the men’s department creates obvious problems around sizing and fit, but rather than reproduce an hourglass silhouette, the goal of these brands is to create a straight line over a female body. “What masculine-identified women don’t want is a suit with darts in it, that’s all very feminine and cut in with that hourglass,” said Shaz Riley, the owner of the Butch Clothing Company, a tailor for masculine women in England. “They want to look like David Beckham looks in his suits.”

Bex Wade

A look by Marimacho. The goal of brands like Marimacho is to create a straight line over a female body.

“For a lot of people that have bigger breasts, it’s difficult to find something that fits your chest, is slender enough for your shoulders and then doesn’t pull too much on our hips,” said Crystal Gonzalez-Alé, the business and life partner of Ivette Gonzalez-Alé, the creative director of Marimacho.

Many of these brands have been a source of empowerment for many masculine women. “It’s about feeling good in your clothes,” said Patricia Baldwin, a lecturer in the English department at San Francisco State University, who recently went into Tomboy Tailors to shop for a suit for her commitment ceremony next month. “If my suit starts at Men’s Wearhouse, it’s not going to be supportive of who I am,” she said.

After the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and tossed out the Proposition 8 case, effectively allowing gay marriages in California, the political tides have shifted in favor of gay marriage, and with it, more marriage ceremonies and a broader embrace of styles that cross the gender line.

“I think that people wanted this kind of a business for a long time but haven’t been comfortable to do it,” Ms. Anders said. She has been with her partner, Doris Bersing, for a dozen years. They married in 2004.

This time around, she’s planning on wearing something from her store, like a three-piece tuxedo in a black pinpoint fabric.

[uniquetobeme]

My GF has a job interview and we went to over 5 stores trying to find something that looks professional but not a suit and tie. Any ideas/advice? She wears men's clothing, but isn't comfortable in a suit and tie. It's tough because it seems to look really professional either you have to wear women's clothes, or go with a suit and tie option. Where is the in-between? The interview is for an Executive Administrative Assistant position.
I know she can't do this...

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by uniquetobeme

My GF has a job interview and we went to over 5 stores trying to find something that looks professional but not a suit and tie. Any ideas/advice? She wears men's clothing, but isn't comfortable in a suit and tie. It's tough because it seems to look really professional either you have to wear women's clothes, or go with a suit and tie option. Where is the in-between? The interview is for an Executive Administrative Assistant position.
I know she can't do this...

Hi, I work in a very professional environment.

I wear men's dress slacks. Not ones that are a part of a suit, but they are dressy slacks in the same sort of way. Unlike khakis (which are not dressy enough, they would have some polyester in them...or something besides all cotton).

I then wear a dress shirt that one could wear with a tie, but I just skip the tie. Do not wear a t-shirt underneath, that dresses down the outfit. Button up to the highest button before the top. I do not wear a jacket because this screams male. I already look male, this just take it too far over the edge for my line of work. So, just dress pants and a dress shirt.

The biggest errors that butches make is that they get shirts that are too big. Make sure the shoulder seam is on the shoulders. SO many butches wear shirts with the shoulders hanging past the shoulders. This looks sloppy.

Go into a store like Calvin Klein. The type of dress pants that would make sense would be hanging on a rack (not in folded stacks, which are the khaki, cotton type). Typically the shirts I would buy would be hanging on a hanger, not the ones in the clear wrapping packages. I'm sorry I don't know the verbiage on this, but the ones in the packages tend to have the buttons set up in a way that works if one wears a tie, but without a tie, the second button is too close to the top of the neck. The ones on the rack open more naturally at the neck.

Personally, I think that more fitted shirts guys are wearing look a lot better and less boxy/sloppy, if she is thin enough to wear this type. You will see signs that indicate that it is a "fitted" shirt.

Anyway, I would skip department stores and hit individual places like Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, etc. Don't be afraid to ask the sales people to help you. Just look for a gay guy. :-)

Obviously in an Exec Admin Assistant position, how nicely dressed someone looks is important. I have also learned that it is less about what one is actually wearing, and more about how well it fits one's body and if it is pressed with no wrinkles. Go for crisp lines.

Good luck.

I will send Kelt in because he knows this stuff...

[Kelt]

Dapper is spot on about fit being 80% of the impression. It is really going to depend on how your partner is built as to whether or not the mens or women's department will get the best starting point. Either way, I cannot recommend getting a tailor highly enough. It is the finishing that makes it.

If you end up buying shirts in the mens dept many times you may find the sleeves need to be shortened 1-2cm or they will bunch at the cuff and look sloppy, women's arms are proportionally a bit shorter most of the time and the shoulder is the most important fit check. If your GF is more stout it might be better to start with a women's cut for the shoulder/hip ratio but look out for darts, nuff said about that. A tailor can taper the sides to fit whatever shape needed (within reason). If your GF is smaller in stature it's another problem, I run into this and sometimes end up in boys sizes where it is harder to find quality.

Similarily, with trousers it is the "drop" that matters for your starting point. The waist to hip ratio. Typically if you are starting with a mens cut you will want the difference to be 8" inches or less, if it is more, start with a women's cut otherwise they will never hang right. It is good to look for a "split back" waistband if you can (mostly in mens or expensive women's) for ease of tailoring.

I used to have to navigate the professional dress quandary also and went with basically a suit minus the tie or would sometimes sub in a mock-t sweater of higher quality. I was in an all male environment though, so I'm not sure that would fly. If the position is going to be working with mostly men or women will likely matter. Playing to the expected audience would be safer up front and then after settling into the position more freedom might available. Right now getting the job is probably top priority. There are in-between spaces for sweaters, shorter cut jackets (Ellen), skipping jackets (like Dapper) and sometimes just going with a brighter color shirt seems to work. Personality and skills should trump all but it's the real world. It's important that your partner feels comfortable and professional.

Come back in and let us know what you come up with or if you have more questions.

[Kelt]

While on the subject of appearance, I decided to play with hair. Since I've only had 2 now 3 hairstyles in the last 30 years this is significant for me.

I knocked the corners off my flattop and am growing out the top a tad.

Going for kind of a George Clooney in "The American" look. I have a little more pepper to salt ratio but since we have a similar face shape I thought I'd try it. I'll never look good like him but we both have that longish, trending toward jowliness-with-age shape.

It's weird to look in the mirror and see a round top of head. So what did I do today but go out and buy a flat-topped hat (pork pie).

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Kelt

Similarily, with trousers it is the "drop" that matters for your starting point. The waist to hip ratio. Typically if you are starting with a mens cut you will want the difference to be 8" inches or less, if it is more, start with a women's cut otherwise they will never hang right. It is good to look for a "split back" waistband if you can (mostly in mens or expensive women's) for ease of tailoring.

Ummmm, yeah, no one knows what this means. Bring it down to the common man, Mr. Snot!

Yes, what's hard is where one starts with their body's. I went right to talking about men's clothing because uniquetobeme stated this is what her partner wore, but you do have to go with what fits correctly and then tailor it from there.

I've said it before and I will say it again...I'm so glad I can buy "off the rack"!

Kelt, it would be awesome if at some point you would share (post photos) what's going on with your hair (or when it is complete). That is a BIG step, man!

[Dance-with-me]

Just read this about a new clothing line - Tomboy Exchange. Check them out, perhaps even consider contributing to their kickstarter!

http://tomboyexchange.com/