As summer turns to autumn and the temperature begins to drop (at least in the northern hemisphere), it becomes necessary to adjust one’s wardrobe. I started to unpack my autumn and winter clothes a couple of weeks ago only to make a tragic discovery: many of my older clothes no longer fit. It turns out that I hadn’t accounted for 5 months of breast development last time I purchased winter clothes. As a result, I have had to start clothes shopping to rebuild my winter wardrobe.
Clothes shopping had exposed an inconvenient truth: they don’t make clothes for bodies like mine. I am currently doing all of my clothes shopping online, so I have spent a lot of time comparing my measurements to size charts. The primary issue is that my current proportions are not standard for either men or women’s clothing. Men’s clothing is not designed with breasts in mind. Shirts that are the proper length tend to be incredibly tight in the chest. On the other hand, women’s clothing that fits my chest tends to be far too short. Either way, I have to buy clothes that are massively oversized: men’s clothes that are too long or women’s clothes with too much room in the chest.
Fortunately, I have found a pretty simple solution: hemming my clothes. Since I am still presenting as male, most of my purchases are for men’s clothes. As long as the rest of the fit is correct, it is fairly simple to reduce the length of most tops and pants. It is not as simple to adjust women’s clothes. I do not know of a way to adjust the chest without effectively deconstructing the garment and then putting it back together. At that point, I might as well just create the clothes from scratch.
Natalie's Transition Diary 