Veronica:
Glad you could join us and I hope that we meet your needs.
We don’t have a dedicated fashion and makeup forum as exists in our sister site, Crossdresser Heaven. However, I will offer some points regarding apparel.
- There is no standard sizing for women’s clothing. It is very inconsistent between manufacturers and even within a given manufacturer.
- Even if there were standard sizing charts, how a garment is designed to fit comes into play. For example, dresses can be body conforming (bodycon), traditional fit or oversize and various shades in between, but the number or letter size would be the same. Some years back I was given a blouse and tank set. The tank was a size 8. I could put it on, but I dare not inhale. The blouse was also labeled size 8, but I had no trouble wearing it as the blouse was oversized by design.
- Get a cloth measuring tape and measure yourself. Most department store web sites will have a size chart for a given item and also instructions on how to measure yourself. If you are careful and pay attention to detail, you can do it yourself. But, sometimes having another person around helps to get things lined up correctly.
- Contrary to clothing sizes, women’s shoe sizes are fairly well documented. That thing about a 2 size difference is not true any more, if it ever was. The usual difference is 1 to 1 1/2 sizes. There are many size sizing charts on the internet. Here is one: https://www.dsw.com/en/us/content/sizing-guide For me, my longer foot measures 10.5″ and I wear either a 9 1/2 or 10 in men’s sizes. The difference seems to be more related to the type of shoe and the style. So, 10.5″ corresponds to a women’s size 11 and that is what I wear. Note that there may be some slight difference of 1/16″ or 1/8″. There are shoe width charts, but they are a bit harder to find.
- There was a recent statistic that said more than 1/2 of Amazon’s vendors are from China. Beware when ordering women’s clothes through Amazon as the sizing is very inconsistent. Be sure to check the sizing data for the item. Often you can get an idea that something is sold by an Asian vendor by reading the text. Things will stand out like wrong verb tenses, missing words, misspellings, etc. The sizing issues also show up in online vendors like Nora Cora and some other web sites.
- Discount stores with web sites, such as TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, Sierra Trading often only provide generic sizing data. Very easy to go wrong here, so make sure of the return policies.
- If you do any shopping on thrift store web sites, disregard the numerical and letter sizing and only use actual measurements. In addition to what I said above about sizing, also know that sizing has changed over the years.
So, please complete your Profile page. It helps other members to understand where you are in your journey, what’s difficult, successes, etc. Also, you can update it at any time if something changes.
If you would like to search for other members who may be nearby, click on Social in the menu and then Member Directory.
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