Laurie and Debbie say:

With all the swirling controversy around Caitlyn Jenner, much of which is nasty, inappropriate, and transphobic, we found Tom+Lorenzo’s take at the fashion blog Fabulous & Opinionated (not a blog we expected to be quoting!) to be a breath of fresh air.

Fashion critique, since long before the days of fashion blogging, has been a vast playground of bitchiness, a place where the critics can say whatever they please, and the snarkier they get, the more audience they will attract.

Tom and Lorenzo are no exception — when they are talking about fashion. When they are talking about gender politics, they keep the tone and save the bitchiness for the folks who deserve it:

When Laverne Cox hit the scene and we found ourselves regularly writing about the style choices of a transgender woman, we assessed our approach to make sure we weren’t bringing any preconceptions or prejudicial thinking to our writing and found that there was one simple way to keep our thoughts true. All we had to say – and we only had to say it once or twice before it stuck – is, “She’s a woman.”

Not a transgender woman, although that’s what she and Caitlyn are. But for style purposes and for this site in particular, it’s important to us that we write about women like Laverne and Caitlyn in exactly the same manner we’d write about their contemporaries like Beyonce and Helen Mirren. We’d be doing them a disservice if we treated them any differently, frankly. We don’t say this to erase their trans identities and we sure as hell don’t say it to pat ourselves on the backs, but Caitlyn’s clearly on the poledance at the moment and her decades as a Kardashian family member have rendered her WORLD CLASS in that regard. There’s no need to treat her like a saint. She’s sporting tons of free designer clothes (WAY more than Laverne gets, we’ll note), dressing like a Real Housewife on an AmEx bender and working the press and the paps like the Olympic level attention whore she is. Like everyone else in her extended clan, she WANTS you talking about her.

So let’s get to work and JUDGE, kittens. Because that’s the other thing: girlfriend needs a stylist badly.

Here’s proof: you can be a bitchy, opinionated fashion critic (you can be two bitchy opinionated fashion critics) and you can still have good trans politics and express them well.  And, they’re absolutely right: Jenner is hanging out on reality shows, sporting Diane von Furstenberg clothes, and “working the press and the paps.” Writing about her clothes any differently than they write about any  other woman’s would be wrong.

Note the difference in attitude when they talk about Jenner’s style …

The dress works really well for her, although it’s another instance of a sleeve length that isn’t quite working for her. She looks pretty damned toned to us and she certainly has no problem showing off her legs, so we’re curious as to why she seems reluctant to uncover more of her arms.

The accessorizing isn’t good. She clearly loves those slingbacks, and while we’re sure the range of shoe options are limited for her size (although she’s crazy wealthy, so that shouldn’t be too much of an issue), she needs to open things up a bit more. The black accessories don’t read as daytime and the dress needs something to keep it a little on the playful side. A pair of wedge heels would’ve been our choice. And a brown or white bag.

A mainstream fashion blog with good trans politics? If it wasn’t for the work of all the trans people who have preceded Jenner over the last sixty years, who faced constant oppression and never got any equality, she could never be on this level a playing field now. Here’s hoping Jenner will find ways to make the world safer and better for trans people who don’t have her money and privilege.

Thanks to Kerry Ellis for the pointer.