Make-Overs Disguise the Masculine

Jim Bridges began his new career on the road, traveling from city to city, lugging cases of jewelry, wigs and cosmetics.

During 20 years as a makeup artist for the entertainment industry, he had worked with everyone from Angela Landsbury to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. He had toured with the Rolling Stones, doing Mick Jagger’s lips and eyes before concerts. But he was looking for a change.

“I was really getting burned out working with prima-donna models and actresses,” Bridges said. “They were always whining and complaining.”

So he set off, baggage and all, to pursue a different clientele: cross dressers.

Calling himself a “transformation specialist,” Bridges attended cross-dresser conventions across the country. As one of the first entrepreneurs to approach this small and largely closeted community, he has spent the last decade establishing himself as a trusted figure among men who like to dress as women.

Bridges still travels. But he also operates an eponymous boutique in Studio City, beside a tuxedo shop and, more appropriately, around the corner from the Queen Mary, a nightclub that features female impersonators.

Bridges’ presence among cross dressers is such that, when a documentary film crew decided to examine the subculture, it was inevitable that they would cross paths with him. Bridges and his boutique appear in “All Dressed Up and No Place to Go” on Cinemax tonight at 11:30.

The 1-hour, 10-minute film chooses not to include transvestites, transsexuals or drag queens, focusing instead on heterosexual cross dressers. It follows four men through a range of emotions as they confront the physical and psychological trappings of their unusual interest.

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Such pathos is daily fare in Bridges’ boutique.

“The one thing that struck me when we were filming Jim was that what he did made people so happy,” said Peter Schwartz, the director. “When we were there, a man was brought to tears. He had never seen himself in that way. All of a sudden, he looked like a pretty woman.”

Successful conversions do not always come easily. “Some of these men are just plain scary,” Bridges said. “It’s just an ugly man in a dress.”

Where beauty is all but impossible, the goal is to make the man look feminine enough so that he will not be easily recognized--or read--as a cross dresser. Strong masculine chins must be disguised with makeup. Wide necks, shoulders and torsos must be camouflaged with specially tailored dresses.

“A man will come to me and say, ‘I don’t know why I got read at the mall,’ ” Bridges said. “I say, ‘Well, you’re 6-foot-2 and 50 years old. You’re wearing Las Vegas showgirl hair and a mini-dress. Gee, I wonder.’ ”

While men with androgynous features can pull off what Bridges calls the “hooker look,” most of his clients are better served with conservative clothes and accessories.

And for those who cannot overcome their fear of public ridicule, the boutique offers a private room in back, complete with a rack of dresses and a full-length mirror, that rents for $60 an hour.

The first boutique for cross dressers opened 25 years ago in New York City, according to Yvonne Cook-Riley, director of operations for the International Foundation for Gender Education in Boston.

“It began as a store for drag queens,” Cook-Riley said. “Then it perpetuated to the rest of the trans-gender community.”

Now, dozens of specialty houses advertise in cross-dressing publications. There are electrologists, makeup artists, dressmakers and shoe stores that sell ladies footwear in men’s sizes. There are voice and dance coaches. There is the well-known Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls, which is also featured in the Cinemax film.

“You have to remember, the trans-gender community is basically paranoia-ridden. They use specialty houses because of acceptance,” Cook-Riley said. “Jim has put forth the effort to take his boutique to the major events in the United States and display his wares in a nonthreatening environment.”

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The boutique, now in its eighth year, is decorated in shades of purple and pink. Wigs hang from a wall near the entrance, alongside glass cases that display jewelry, corsets and artificial breast forms. Dresses, scarves and lingerie hang from floor racks. There are dozens of types of blush, lipstick and foundation in back.

A full make-over costs $60. Wig stylings begin at $12. There are half-day workshops, for as much as $100, that cover skin-tone analysis and concealing techniques. Bridges said: “It’s an expensive hobby.”

Everything from synthetic prostheses to simple undergarments must be custom-made to accommodate men’s comparatively larger bodies.

“We thought the idea that men were heterosexual and cross dressed was really bizarre,” said Ellen Sherman, who wrote and produced the film. “But the more filming we did, the more we realized that everything we had thought before was wrong. Eventually, you start seeing these people--whether they are dressed as men or women--as just people.”

The clientele at Jim Bridges’ Boutique range in age from teens to the elderly. There are doctors, lawyers, athletes and an oil-rig worker, he says. And Bridges stopped being surprised by the diversity years ago. He has turned it to his advantage, often bartering for his services.

“I swapped my mechanic a corset to put a new engine in my truck,” he said. “And my dentist, well, my teeth haven’t been so good in 10 years.”

But the makeup artist, who is gay, said that the true rewards of this second career have arrived in the form of smaller reciprocations.

“I get thank-you notes and cards, people really pouring their guts out. I get flowers, candy, wine,” he said. “These people are so grateful.

“I never got that kind of appreciation on a movie set, never from a model.”

DETAILS

* WHAT: “All Dressed Up and No Place to Go.”

* WHERE: Cinemax.

* WHEN: 11:30 tonight.