Thoughts concerning silhouettes

[Myopic Bookworm]

My style is generally "masculine above the waist", and I routinely wear men's shirts with skirts. It's a way of steering to the masculine side rather than appearing trans to the casual observer. Women's tops are frequently shaped to the bust, and have a lower neckline than I would be comfortable with. I have a girlie leather jacket and a couple of cropped T shirts, and I would wear cropped jackets, but nothing else feminine above the waist. I struggle to find satisfactory dresses, because they tend to be aimed at making women feel feminine, and I want a masculine upper section, like, square shoulders or epaulettes: often the best option is to wear a man's jacket over the dress.

[robehickman]

My style is generally "masculine above the waist", and I routinely wear men's shirts with skirts. It's a way of steering to the masculine side rather than appearing trans to the casual observer. Women's tops are frequently shaped to the bust, and have a lower neckline than I would be comfortable with. I have a girlie leather jacket and a couple of cropped T shirts, and I would wear cropped jackets, but nothing else feminine above the waist. I struggle to find satisfactory dresses, because they tend to be aimed at making women feel feminine, and I want a masculine upper section, like, square shoulders or epaulettes: often the best option is to wear a man's jacket over the dress.

That makes sense, re dresses, men's 'medieval tunic' style 'dresses' are readily available from reenactment and LARP suppliers, at least in the UK. Also, basic kinds of dresses like that aren't very hard to make, and 'the stitchery' recently published a video on abstract concepts of dress design:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGrWTW6buX8

It is worthwhile taking a bit of time to develop a custom fit 'bodice block' / 'sloper' pattern, and how to do that is discussed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUtyPPn ... bT&index=2

That channel has a great deal of information about pattern drafting.