CROSSDRESSER FORMAL GOWNS

Crossdresser formal gowns take a little more work up front in some cases because of their specialized designs. I just ordered one from Macy’s so we will see if I get lucky when it arrives. It is a final sale so I can’t return it but for $72.00 I thought it was worth the risk. Based on the size chart I bought the correct size, but I have had problems in the past due to the cut of the gowns.

I have quite a few MacDougal gowns that I purchased both second hand and new and learned valuable lessons from them. The first one is that the size measurements shown on their website are naturally for women and are more form fitting than a sheath dress. A slightly built man might not have any issues using that guide to by gowns. If you have an athletic triangular build the zipper hangs up right under the breasts where the piping is because it doesn’t allow for the width.

MacDougal said to order a size 14 based on my measurement which is basically a 16W anywhere else. I could not get it zipped up no matter what I did. I tried to return it without success as it was a sale item which I knew but thought they might acknowledge the sizing issue. I tried again by going up to a size 16 on their chart which should have done the trick but was a struggle. I got it on by putting it on backwards without my arms inside and zipping it up past the under breast piping. Then rotating it back around and slipping my arms inside and working the zipper up all the way after putting my arms back in their sockets. It was tight but I got it done although I worried about the zipper breaking all night long.

After wrestling with the zipper issue, I went up a size to the 18 which, again is really an 18W with MacDougal and 4 inches larger in the bust than I need. That would be too large in a dress by most designers actually more like a size 20 regular women’s. It worked perfectly for a reason I did not expect which, is the weight of the gown. All of the sequins add a lot of weight which makes the gown hang on your body clinging to your curves nicely. It also makes the dress a little longer I think which again is a good thing as you can see in the pictures above.

The colors are similar in the two crossdresser formal gowns below, but the dresses are different patterns. The one on the left has no pattern just equal sized sequins all over while the one on the right has a pattern design on it. The left one is MacDougal and the one on the right is B&A The one below is Adriana Pappel but a regular size 18 which shows you the difference.

The blue dress below is a MacDougal again in a size 18 the same as the green one on the left above. I jumped on it when they put it on sale because I knew there was no risk because I already owned the green one which fit.

I want to make sure you know that I only mention the designer’s names, so you have a reference for sizing. If you find one on sale and order your normal size it might not fit, and you might not be able to get your money back. I never pay anything close to the prices they charge in the stores which in my opinion is a rip off based on the quality of the gown. When I look at what I paid versus what they were charging somebody during the season people did not get value for their money. I pay a fraction of what they did because I shop 12 months a year which is why winter gowns are cheap in August.

I see great looking gowns on Amazon for around $100.00 or less sometimes, but they show more skin than I am comfortable with showing. I paid $60.00 for this beautiful burgundy lace crossdresser formal gown below from Nordstroms on closeout sale and it fit perfectly.

I learned an expensive lesson some years back when I bought an incredible red gown online and I was very excited about wearing to the CHIC Club Christmas party. I had some issues with the way it fit so took it to my seamstress to have it taken in here and there. I kept checking back to see if it was done and getting put off again and again until the party was getting too close, so I bought another crossdresser formal gown for the party.

After Christmas it still wasn’t done so I had a sit down with the seamstress who until know had been awesome. She showed me the pieces of my gown and the problems she had with the way it was made. It was thrown together in India, and the fabric grain in some parts ran against that of others. No matter what she did it looked funny, so she kept trying to make it work but without replacing the material with the exact same fabric it wouldn’t work. In the end I threw the gown away and learned a valuable lesson about altering a crossdresser formal gown.