Objects of Desire - Stockings and Suspenders
This is one of life’s pleasurable things. So soft and delicate, clinging like a second skin. There is something wonderful about slowly rolling a new stocking up your leg. It must be done slowly. Like all pleasures it should be savoured. Transvestism thrives on the differences between men and women’s clothing. The sock is coarse and the stocking is sheer. The sock doesn’t advance beyond the shin. The stocking clings intimately to our thighs.
A sock is something you use but with a stocking it is like a relationship. Like a lover. You need your nails to be smooth to avoid snagging. Be careful - don’t tug. Suspenders too are sensual. Fastening them in place a delight. Position them carefully. They must not grip the welt not the sheer fabric beneath. Slide the suspender into place. Feel it take the tension. I love it !! 30 years after stockings and suspenders were “replaced “ by tights lots of women still have them in their drawers and on their legs. The appeal continues and not just for Transvestites. Possibly the most sexy pictures I’ve ever seen was in a glossy women’s magazine. It was an “ I want to be that girl” sexiness. These mags exist to sell clothes, makeup, perfume, anything feminine. They are in the business of making the reader want to be that girl. The point is that stockings and suspenders can ooze sex appeal to women as well as men. The sexiness for me is about the fact that they are hidden.
The image of a girl adjusting her suspender is so sexy and only she will know she’s wearing them. “ I want to be that girl" The Transvestite is in a privileged position. We can place ourselves in the private world of the woman. This is especially satisfying when stepping out with suspenders out with suspenders and stocking tops hidden under our skirts. We know but no one else does. When looking at ourselves in the mirror we are both the man and woman looking on at the sexy image we see before us. It’s no wonder w love mirrors so much.
It’s not just about looking good, it’s how they make us feel too. The feeling when we roll them in is so great. Even better when the suspenders take the tension. Stockings are sexy and practical !! Sex with both if you in stockings comes highly recommended. The friction of nylon upon nylon - WOW !! Wearing feminine clothes is a very special experience. They say the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Let’s pamper ourselves and as far as I’m concerned that includes stockings and suspenders. They’re great !!!
Self Portrait In A Straw Hat
On my infrequent visits to London whenever I can steal a few moments for my private pleasure, I pay a fleeting visit to the National Gallery and head immediately for the same room. There on the left, just as you enter is a small canvas painted by Elizabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun a French female artist who lived from 1755 – 1842 in Paris. I know very little of her life or of her other paintings. The National Gallery possesses one other painting by her but it does not compare in merit with her self portrait wearing a straw hat.
Expression
She stares straight out of her portrait at the viewer. Her expression is challenging. There is a half smile about her lips and her eyes are clear, almost calculating as she gazes into what I presume is a mirror. She holds the palette in her left hand protruding through the hole and the bulk of the palette resting on her arm. But the painting is not being done at the moment depicted. No woman would risk spoiling her clothes without a smock to protect them. She so obviously enjoys being a woman and wearing her finery. He depicts herself in a dusky pink low cut dress with a gathered bodice and trimmed with a white satin ruff with an engaging ribbon in a bow between her breasts, the outlines of which are just visible beneath the folds of her dress. From her appearance I would guess she was about 20 years old when she painted the portrait but it has the style and professionalism of someone twice that age. But the glory of the painting is the hat. It is a wide brimmed straw hat turned up slightly on the right to give a debonair appearance to the wearer. What so captures my appearance is the triumphant femininity of Elizabeth Louise. She lived at a time when it must have been exceedingly difficult for any woman to make a living independently in a man’s world but her she is , full of self confidence in her powers and skills as a painter, challenging the world with a painting of superlative merit and sure technique and at the same time depicting herself as a beautiful and desirable woman. If I has been a man I might have fallen in love with her. But I am not. What I can do instead is to think of her when I dress. To assume some of her self confidence and see myself as her looking out of that painting into the world with confidence and unafraid. I once cherished the dream of finding clothes similar to those she wears in the portrait so that I could look in the mirror as she did and hopefully see the same woman returning my scrutiny with that half amused smile. Perhaps one day I will. Meanwhile she inspires me and fills me with a feminine confidence that I would not otherwise enjoy and so on every visit to London I pay homage to my predecessor and silently commune with her spirit.