I'm a man. A man who tried out what it was like to wear pantyhose, skirts and dresses. At first there was a lot of tension, because it's definitely women's clothing. But the offer in men's departments is very limited and no longer offered any basis...
My wife made a significant contribution to building my self-confidence. For her, clothes were just cloth. A completely gender-neutral view that I hadn't really anchored in my consciousness yet. When we were outside, she was far less bothered by any reactions from others than I was.
My self-confidence grew so slowly that I dared to show myself a bit more daring outside. I was so far that I no longer feared reactions so much, even if they hurt sometimes, but wanted to absorb and process them for myself so that I could slowly develop my own taste in style. I also always looked around at what clothes women wear, what elements are put together. What is possible to wear - at least for a woman. I would have to test whether something like this would work for me as a man.
Basically, I had the attitude that tights could always be adapted to the outside temperature. If I always wore the same pair of jeans between 0 and 30 degrees, sometimes felt a bit cold, sometimes a bit warm in them, I assumed that the thickness of the tights could correlate with the outside temperature. The higher the temperature, the lower the den-value and vice versa.
On a sunny, pleasant spring day, I wore a knee-length denim skirt and black 20-denier pantyhose, so sheer, not opaque, to go shopping. With the weather, I felt comfortable in it. However, I noticed someone who saw me and just shook his head violently. What was obviously going on in his head was: How can you walk around like that? Well, I thought, maybe translucent black tights aren't so suitable after all. As an alternative, I now resorted to skin-colored tights, 15 or less those that were almost invisible on the leg. From then on I never had a problem with it.
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I also tried different colored nylon tights with 60 and 80 deniers, dark blue, bordeaux, some also in bright colors: red, green, yellow. No noticeable reactions to dark colors, but the bright colors in particular increased the likelihood that someone would get excited. Ok, I put those tights aside.
A few years later, I received confirmation of the way I had acted at the time. There was a woman in the office who wore a dress every day, never pants. One day she wore bright red tights that were a total eye-catcher. There was nobody who wasn't looking. She was instructed by the boss to dress a little less conspicuously. My thought: Aha, women don't have it in their genes either, but can sometimes commit a faux pas. And by the way: even when I looked at other women's clothes, I noticed that some of them looked terrible.
Over time, I worked out that there were few or no reactions when I wore cotton tights in black, bordeaux, dark blue, dark green in colder weather. Or nylon tights in black from 80 denier, so completely opaque. On the other hand, at slightly cool temperatures, skin-colored tights also worked without triggering any noticeable reactions.
I also experimented with different skirt shapes. My source of purchase was still Tchibo, but there were also a few stores where I wasn't confronted with the sales staff, because that would have been embarrassing again. I knew my size EU 40, so I was able to pick things out on my own. Then there was S, M, L, XL, which I also found confusing at first. Sometimes M fit, sometimes it had to be L.
Balloon skirts, leather skirts, maxi skirts and pleated skirts were ruled out from the start. I do not like her. And I didn't have to try everything that was available. My preference falls on knee-length jeans, cargo, corduroy, pencil skirts. A-Line was also shortlisted. All skirts were plain, without patterns. Black, denim, olive green, dark blue. But some were also in colors that I had never seen on trousers before. They seemed like a small risk to me, but I just loved the colors. I had a green-yellow or a red-brown one.
I usually wore a skirt for hikes, walks, and shopping. No more pants. I've found that knee-length jeans, cargo skirts, and pencil skirts don't draw much attention. At A-Line, there was sometimes a slight uneasiness when I noticed someone turning around.So I missed my first chapter on creating my own style using a stimulus-response scheme or trial and error.
