On September 26, 2017, during my final semester at Texas Christian University, I felt my sense of feminine style truly blossom as I graduated from wearing fast-fashion. On that day, I discovered what would become my favorite women’s clothing brand, White House Black Market.
Up until that point, I experimented with a feminine mode of gender expression by purchasing clothes primarily from Forever 21 and H&M. Their inexpensive clothes allowed me to affirm my gender identity without breaking the bank. Yet without the female socialization that my cisgender female classmates received, I struggled to appear fashionable. It didn’t help that these large stores carried a wide variety of styles, and that shopping there induced sensory overload. Shopping online wasn’t a reasonable option for me, because I needed to feel the fit of the product before I bought it. Trust me, as a transgender person, I know that clothes aren’t usually made with my body in mind! Tiring of the cheap, low-quality clothes sold in fast-fashion stores, I wanted to pursue quality over quantity, while also elevating my sense of style.
It was on that fateful day in 2017, while I was at The Parks Mall in Arlington, TX shopping for feminine clothes, that a thought suddenly came to mind. During one of my previous shopping trips to another mall, North East Mall in Hurst, TX, I recalled walking by this gorgeous-looking women’s clothing store. It was a bright and airy store, carrying sophisticated feminine fashion and an equally-elegant fitting room space that complemented the product. The store that came to mind was WHBM. Perhaps it sounds incredibly superficial of me, but the fact was, the in-store experience I had that day become one of the most gender-affirming experiences I’ve ever had in my life.
I’ll provide you with a quote from my YouTube video, Fashion, Activism, and My Gender Journey, concerning this experience:
My first time walking into a WHBM boutique, I felt like I was in fashion heaven. The clothes were just so beautiful, so my style, and right up my alley. I was in love! The sales associates were very friendly, very helpful, and they helped me find the gender-affirming clothes I really wanted. It did not matter one bit that I was trans. Not at all!
I would later learn that I was not the only transgender person to have such an incredible experience with WHBM. Several years after this, I heard about transgender creator Casey Blake’s coming out story. Just like myself, she also had a profound experience with this same brand. In her words:
This store was a dream, pure perfection in every way.
I’d have to agree with her sentiment. Especially when you consider their top-notch customer service, plus the fact that many items in WHBM’s collections seem to match each other, they make sophisticated style simple. What I personally refer to as the “WHBM look” focuses heavily on neutrals with an emphasis on a singular color (or shades thereof). No wonder so many of their items pair well with each other! For someone still struggling to grasp feminine fashion, the relative simplicity I found in WHBM’s styles quickly elevated my look, making it appear as if I had a lifetime of feminine fashion experience. I no longer felt like I had to play “catch up” with my cisgender peers.
In a Yelp review I wrote about my first experience with WHBM, I said:
Everything about this store was designed with the customer in mind, and making her feel beautiful.
I’m now reminded of that aforementioned top-notch customer service I spoke about. During my very first visit to a WHBM boutique on September 26, 2017, I remember how one of the sales associates checked up on me outside my fitting room, and suggested several skirts to match the tops I decided to try on (as well as additional tops). As someone in the process of finding my style, her gesture came across as genuinely helpful and caring. She even helped me evaluate the fit of the clothes, just as if I had brought a friend with me! I felt pampered and cared for, which led to this incredible sense of gender euphoria enveloping me. They treated me like a woman, not someone merely questioning their gender identity.
The actions of the sales associates did not feel pushy at all; instead, I got the sense that they genuinely cared. I’m pretty sure that if I were confident in my style and would rather shop with less assistance, I would also be respected in that decision. Indeed, that has been my experience on those days that I’ve entered a WHBM boutique with my mind already set on purchasing a particular item. In these cases, the sales associates didn’t pressure me to purchase anything I did not desire. Over the many years I’ve shopped with WHBM, I’ve come to learn that they truly care about their customers, including those of us in the transgender community.
On the note of clothing fit, I personally find WHBM’s sizing to be quite forgiving. With the exception of sheath dresses, most of their clothes fit me well. Even though “mainstream” brands usually don’t usually consider trans bodies in the design of their clothes, the more forgiving fits of a brand like WHBM tend to work well with my body. Although everybody’s body differs, I feel that the fit of WHBM’s clothes would be friendlier to other feminine-identified transgender people as well.
WHBM’s amazing sales associates made a brand loyalist out of me from Day One, even though I only purchased a simple black tee on the first day I shopped with them. I don’t exaggerate when I say that I feel a strong emotional connection to this brand, no doubt due to the gender euphoria I experienced. White House Black Market truly played a pivotal role in my gender transition, and I’m confident that my passion for this brand will endure for my entire life.
I cannot recommend this brand enough for anyone who seeks to elevate their style, including feminine-identified transgender people who seek to look stylish and sophisticated. I do not hesitate to say that the in-store experience is very trans-friendly, and I have found this to be consistent across every WHBM boutique I have shopped at.
Disclaimer: this post is 100% my own honest opinion, and is not sponsored by any third-party!
UPDATE: Since I published this post, I made a YouTube video about this experience! Please feel free to watch it:
I’ll leave you with some of my WHBM looks over the years. I know some of these outfits are repeats, but I’m also considering the background and props in many of these pictures, and not just what I’m wearing:
I hope you enjoyed the pictures! It might surprise you that a ubiquitous fashion chain like WHBM could leave me with such strong feelings, although you would probably understand if you experienced the sheer happiness and joy I felt shopping in their boutiques. I do chalk it up to being transgender, since I could also replace “happiness and joy” with “gender euphoria” in the previous sentence and it would describe the very same thing 🙂
