Peter Farrer’s work looks amazing, thanks for the suggestion. I love “Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender” by Vern and Bonnie Bullough, and I only just found an old copy of “Women in Pants” by Catherine Smith and Cynthia Greig that has some awesome photos.

We are so similar in our fashion culture interests! I recently wrote a paper about male corsetry, discussing its conception and possible reasons for lack of popularity as the years progressed. Fascinating stuff!

I think it’s important to keep in mind what exactly “cross-dressing” means. Many of the examples above I would refer to as androgynous dress, more than cross-dressing because cross-dressing implies men wearing women’s clothing, not clothing that, to our standards today, looks feminine. It is comforting to know however, that for a majority of fashion history men were not put-off by wearing stockings and high heels!

Peter Farrer has done a lot of great work addressing male cross-dressing, particularly during the Victorian Era. Check out his stuff, it can be hard to find but they definitely provide useful examples for this sort of topic.