Let me preface this with the fact that I am a large person. Until late 2017, I weighed 215 pounds to go along with my 6-foot 2-inch height. I dropped 30 pounds in 2017, so I am still a large person at 185 pounds. My height more than the weight kept me closeted for a very long time, but when I finally began exploring my female persona in public, I found that my size was not a deal breaker.
Using the changing room en femme was easy. Using the changing room en homme was just as easy. I lost count how many times I used the changing rooms in Fashion Bug, Dress Barn, Fashion to Figure, Torrid and Macy’s to try on womenswear during a lunch hour while disguised as a male.
I can recall only one “negative” experience. It occurred a very long time ago. Shopping for a girdle en homme in JCPenney, when I asked to try it on, the saleswoman insisted that I use the men’s changing room. Not a big deal, but that was the only changing room experience that I can come up with that had any negativity.
The layout of the dearly departed local Dress Barns had changing rooms scattered around the perimeter of the sales floor. They also had a changing room area in the back of the store. The first few times I visited Dress Barn en homme, I was sent to the back-of-the-store changing room. But as I became a regular customer and the sales staff knew me by name (both male and en femme names), I was invited to use the more public perimeter changing rooms, which was delightful when I was en femme because it gave me the opportunity to exit the changing room and view whatever I was trying on in the three-way full-length mirrors outside the changing room. And doing so invited the sales staff and even customers to comment on what I was wearing. The sales staff usually like what I am wearing (to make a sale), but when a stranger says they like what I am wearing, it’s a home run and that’s where I go with my new dress.
And so it goes.
 |
| Wearing Ann Taylor |
 |
| Nadia Russo |