Paula's Place

Paula's Place

Friday 8 January 2016

I'm a Star Darling! (or at least my back makes a brief appearance!)


Since the show was aired on Wednesday I can now tell the story, around six or seven months back I got a phone call inviting me to try on some "posh frocks".  
The invitation came from a Channel 4 researcher working with Mary Portas on her new "Secret Shopper" series.   Basically they were going to send a taxi to pick me up and take me home, pour wine down my throat all evening and all I had to do was try on some dresses and give my educated opinion.    After thinking about it for fully a quarter of a second I reluctantly agreed ~ for the sake of the community of course!

The story was that a failing Bridal shop run by a husband and wife team had bought a load of dresses because the husband liked them, he liked them because he is a cross dresser and they were what he wanted to wear.  The team wanted to get rid of them and find out if there was a potential untapped market.   I was one of a selection of Trans Women, Crossdressers and Drag Queens there especially to try the wares.   A quick look told me that the dresses were much more appropriate for the Drag Queens and the Trans Beauty Queens than for full time trans women.   Now I do have occasion to wear posh frocks, I actually have three evening gowns and another couple of long dresses, and they do get worn, but there is no way that there was anything there that I would even consider actually wearing.

Still we did have some fun trying them on, making a couple of new friends and giving our opinions.   In the final broadcast you just get see me in a couple of shots, including one of my bare back ~ the dress was so miss sized that it wouldn't even meet, never mind do up! However there is a nice little bit where Mary is talking to my friend Patricia who explains some of the facts of life.

If you haven't seen it yet I do recommend that you do, if only to see Mary Portas' embarrassment when she realises that she has inadvertently called her client a Tranny!

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