Middleman!

[sorcyress]

So, there's this really damn interesting person known as rm who posts a lot about things I'm interested in, like sexuality and gender. Especially gender. Lots and lots of very awesome gender things.

One of the things I have gathered from reading all this is that, occasionally, he sees fit to dress himself up as Ianto, from Torchwood. Not as a cosplay, specifically, somuch as a "it's time for work, and today I would like to look nice and smooth and stylish like Ianto". I mean, as far as I can tell, of course --I don't know his exact motives in the action, merely that it is something he does sometimes, and completely rocks.

Rach may have Ianto days. I apparently have Middleman days. At some point, my brain ticked over into "goddamnit, Sorcy is a bit of an irresponsible twit, but MM is about the most steadfast and responsible person ever. Let's be him today, instead, and get stuff done!"

And so, after lunch when I came back to the room...


...I redressed myself accordingly.

It's a fantastic outfit. The whole thing is designed to feel solid, accomplished, good about myself. Those are grade A boots of butt kicking there, the cargo pants are designed for girls, with actual pockets, the belt is in the least known of "my colours", the button down shirt and tie are just professional, and the jacket is made pretty much entirely of win, some more win, a little bit of awesome, and even more win.¹

Oh, but of course, I'm leaving out my favourite part.



Hey, at least if I'm a tremendous dork, it's for one of the better organizations out there. (It's worth noting that I'm also wearing boy scout socks...also that sometime I should write an essay detailing my thoughts and feelings on GSUSA and BSA)

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Okay, and a tad "needs buttons" but whatever. I can fix that.

Comments

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Man, I am so happy I found the jacket at my favourite local vintage store. And doublehappy that, because it was missing all the original buttons (front, sleeves, epaulets) I managed to talk them down five bucks, so it was only a twenty dollar jacket. *happydance*

I don't particularly have a male style icon, partially because I typically dress what I consider largely genderneutral --jeans and a t-shirt. If I actually started working on putting together a male wardrobe, I'd probably primarily be influenced by people I know in the real worlds --Dominic, Swing, and very plausibly you to a certain extent.

Among other reasons because I'm a small femme looking thing, and you're a small, somewhat femme-looking thing¹ who has put more thought into it than me, and so (should I decide to start being a boy more often) I should steal everything I can get about passing.

~Sor

1: I...am not intending offense, nor have I spent enough time with you/seen enough pictures to have a baseline in the back of my head for just how femme you look. This is a lot based off your comments from the other day where you said I've a soft face and a pointy chin and the saddest eyes you'll ever see. Soyeah. I am going ahead and assuming you to be a small femme-looking thing, regardless of what gender you're being on any given day.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I am (omg, you made me drag out this icon as case in point). Totally fine.

I once auditioned to play Billy Tipton in a film and was told by the casting folks that while they believed me as a man, I was too "urbane" for the role, which I think meant they believed me as a femmey gay man with a vicious sense of humour. It remains one of the funnier things that's been said to me in the business (and more pleasant than "in France, you'd actually be attractive" which is my other favourite "acting sort of sucks" story).

But yeah, I'm very small boned and thin and while the thin and relatively small tits (B cup) thing works in my favor, my measurements are very curvy (34B-25-36/37/38 -- depending) for the size I am, and I have to disguise a lot. I can't buy anything meant for men off-the-rack and have it work other than boy's dress shirts (which only come in about 3 colors and don't offer french cuffs at physical world shops) and ties.

I've recently figured out how to find good men's shoes that will fit me (which involves buying boys shoes from Italy, since they make my size and width in masculine shoes that look like adult shoes and not chunky kid shoes -- now I just have to find a place that has the size combo in question in stock), but this shit is utterly utterly rocket science for pretty much anyone under 5'7" who is curvy, small-boned or has narrow shoulders. A lot of this shit I figured out, believe it or not, from what I know about clothing construction myself to stumbling on a style-guide for short men in the Wall Street Journal about a year ago, and I've been building knowledge from there. That my tailor is sort of like "hey, mad science, cool!" with me, as meant us figuring out a lot of stuff together.

[perelman42.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem, and I'm male-bodied. I have almost exactly your measurements, except flatter and a couple more inches in the waist. I'm 5'11" though, which makes what get called "European" cuts in the US work well; still, it's a lot of shopping in Juniors for dress clothes.

..and I still feel like wearing suits *is* drag for me, but that's a different post.