had my first in person shopping experience for a skirt

[Katycatjulius]

Hello all,

I went looking online for a wrap skirt, then i came across one that i liked which wasn't available online anymore however i knew a physical store was available in the town work (and on wednesday work close by it) so i thought let's just go there and see, but i was debating the whole time whether or not i should do it and in the end i decided i would.

So here is the full story of my experience: after work i went to town and parked my bicycle and went to the store, then when in front of it i grabbed my phone to open the website where the product (skirt) is shown and i asked one of the people working there if it is correct they have it in stock (i looked online if it was available in the store in town and it said it was) and she said yes and then while walking to where the skirt in it's various sizes was hanging she asked what size are you looking for and i said well i have no idea to be honest, i want to get it for myself however i did measure myself so i know my waist size is 92 centimetres. She then said well i have some measuring tape here so i can measure it for you and i said yeah that would be great so she grabbed 2 sizes and walked to the counter to measure them and said they where too short so went back to grab 2 bigger sizes and measured those and then she said are you sure you are 92 centimetres in waist? Cause when looking at you i didn't expect it to be that way, so i said well i can measure myself here and she said yes let's do that, then she indeed saw i wasn't wrong and grabbed other sizes and went measuring those and in the end we came to one that is 90 centimetres across but has a band at the back that stretches, she said you can try it on over your pants/trousers if you like to which i said well if the centimetres are close i think it will be good and so i bought it, i payed for it and went, put it in my bag and went to my bicycle to go home.

So yeah all in all i had a very good experience and nobody said anything about me being a man in a woman's clothing store (including the other people shopping there).

On the receipt it states there is a 14 day return/trade policy along with a link to their website explaining it futher, so I tried it on at home and so far it seems to fit well, so i think i am good and if i still feel like i am not good then i can always make use of that 14 day return/trade policy to trade it for a size higher or lower depending on what is needed.

While i was very nervous the whole time i kept myself cool enough to get everything done and make the purchase and in the end i think it was worth it for the experience alone but i now also have a nice wrap skirt (it is a long one).

Thanks to this forum (reading through it by searching) i was feeling good enough to make this happen so thank you all

.

[Grok]

Well done!

[Katycatjulius]

Yes i am very happy and so far i still feel like i don't have to trade it (meaning correct size)

[Mouse]

You have to remember that you are the customer and to the shop worker, a sale is a sale. I know it is not easy and I have gone to a shop and failed to get through the front door. So you have been epic. Well done.

[Katycatjulius]

You have to remember that you are the customer and to the shop worker, a sale is a sale. I know it is not easy and I have gone to a shop and failed to get through the front door. So you have been epic. Well done.

While it is true that a sale is a sale they also have the right to decline a sale (they should have a good reason for it and just because i am a man isn't a good reason to decline a sale in my opinion but still it is a thing they can do).

Yes it is not easy but i hane done it and i am proud of myself for doing it

[Faldaguy]

Be proud of yourself indeed. I think an early shopping trip to a women's clothing store and acknowledging it is for yourself is one of the more difficult steps to achieve -- we have quite a few members here who still restrict their acquisitions to online anonymity. I recall there being some anxiety about using the change rooms when all I had was a handful of skirts -- no pretending they are for someone else! I do like trying items before leaving the shop, it saves a lot time and hassle over returns. Nor, can I imagine a store declining to make a sale -- I don't think I've even heard of that happening -- in fact, I tend to get better service as a guy in a skirt, than otherwise -- the the staff will remember you for the next visits, be it for car parts or skirts.

Congratulations. Now, get out on the street and enjoy wearing it. Share you experience, there are a lot of "first-timers" here and old hands that still stick to wearing their skirts at home -- the stories of your early ventures will be lapped up, and surprisingly helpful.

[Katycatjulius]

Well seeing as i live with housemates my next step is actually going to wear it outside of my room with my housemates seeing it happen, after this i can think about going to wear it outside

[Mouse]

Well seeing as i live with housemates my next step is actually going to wear it outside of my room with my housemates seeing it happen, after this i can think about going to wear it outside

I hope it goes well with your house mates. I think going out will be the easier of the two things and I would do that first, since I think you will be ignored by the general public and you will gain confidence. You will then have personal experience when talking to housemates. IMHO

[Katycatjulius]

I hope it goes well with your house mates. I think going out will be the easier of the two things and I would do that first, since I think you will be ignored by the general public and you will gain confidence. You will then have personal experience when talking to housemates. IMHO

You make a very good point and i even think you are right however in my situation i cannot do this as 9 out of 10 times i literally cannot go outside without my housemates seeing me (and that 1 time that i can literally only happens like 2 or 3 times a year), so yeah for me the next step is wearing it outside my room with my housemates seeing it. And my parents also don't know it yet (literally only the ones here reading this and my best friend know about it so far) i hope in time i can i can include more people close to me knowing about it (with close to me i mean people that i have known for years and know well like friends, parents, housemates and so on).

However first i will wait for the 2 second hand skirts, the new online ordered skirt and the new online ordered shoulder bag to arrive, this way i should have 4 skirts that fit me and a shoulder bag to go along with it as a replacement for my pants/trousers pockets i put my phone in when wearing those

[DrFishnets]

While i was very nervous the whole time i kept myself cool enough to get everything done and make the purchase and in the end i think it was worth it for the experience alone but i now also have a nice wrap skirt (it is a long one).

I can relate to the way you were feeling when first going into a woman’s clothes shop to buy a skirt. Before I used to get my partner to buy skirts and tights for me due to the fear of going to the check out and wondering what the check out assistant is thinking of me buying women’s clothes. However, just a few months ago I plucked the courage and seen a dress I really liked and took a deep breath and took it to the check out and it was easy and check out girl didn’t bat an eyelid and the purchase was made successfully. I walked out the shop feeling so good and proud of myself and told my partner and she was delighted that I was able to this on my own.

Thing is I am now so confident buying skirts, dresses, tights and leggings that I am now buying lots of dresses and it’s becoming an addiction and I’m like a kid in a sweet shop when I’m in the women's clothes department of a shop.

[rode_kater]

You make a very good point and i even think you are right however in my situation i cannot do this as 9 out of 10 times i literally cannot go outside without my housemates seeing me (and that 1 time that i can literally only happens like 2 or 3 times a year), so yeah for me the next step is wearing it outside my room with my housemates seeing it.

Something I did way back in the beginning was simply change while out of the house. I'd basically have the skirt in the bike bags, cycle to a nearby park, pull up the skirt, drop the pants and viola! Obviously this works better with elasticated stuff. You also have changing robes (for changing into swimmers) if you;re super worried about people seeing. Changing in a car is also popular.

Other possibilities (which I never tried) are public toilets or changing room in stores, but they're too public for me.

Just pick whatever you're comfortable with. Good luck

[Katycatjulius]

Something I did way back in the beginning was simply change while out of the house. I'd basically have the skirt in the bike bags, cycle to a nearby park, pull up the skirt, drop the pants and viola! Obviously this works better with elasticated stuff. You also have changing robes (for changing into swimmers) if you;re super worried about people seeing. Changing in a car is also popular.

Other possibilities (which I never tried) are public toilets or changing room in stores, but they're too public for me.

Just pick whatever you're comfortable with. Good luck

This is a good suggestion except for changing in a car cause i don't have one and never will get one but that is just my situation so nothing wrong with the suggestion.

However i do think i need to tell people here where i live and my parents before i can go out wearing skirts, while i have no idea how to tell my parents i do have an idea how to tell it here where i live (specifically who to tell) and maybe ghat person can also help me with how to tell my parents or help me with telling them.

I did tell my best friend and she was really exited about it and is exited to see what i come up with so that's really good.

Before i want to take this futher though i want to make sure i have both all the skirts i am currently waiting for (if all have arrived i should have 5 skirts that fit me) and a shoulder bag (this should arrive with one of the skirts thag is still coming) this so i actually have some skirts that fit me and have a shoulder bag to put the things in i normally put in the pockets of my pants/trousers. so yeah i will see about taking it further once i have everything and like i said for where i live i have an idea of who to talk to

[Myopic Bookworm]

One thing I bought to wear when I first went out in a skirt was a small lapel badge saying "HE/HIM", to make it clear that I was not either trying to dress up as a woman or identifying as trans. It may not have actually had any effect, but it gave me a certain peace of mind.

[denimini]

Great story. I was also heartened by the fact that the sales lady assumed that the skirt was for you.
Apart from just being courteous it makes good business sense to be nice to customers, although some paid staff seem to not bother.
I too have had some good experiences with shop staff going beyond their call of duty to help.

[Katycatjulius]

I was also heartened by the fact that the sales lady assumed that the skirt was for you.

I don't know if the sales lady assumed it was for me or not because i told her i wanted it for myself, what did happen however is that she when looking at me didn't think my waist is 92 centimetres, then when i measured myself she saw i was right. She actually thought that 2 sizes lower than what i ended up buying was too big and after measuring myself she saw it was actually too small, the size i ended up buying fits perfectly. So yeah great experience as she went measuring the waist of all the skirt sizes she picked from the rack just to sell me the correct size