We were invited to attend a wedding at a Victorian bed and breakfast. When I mentioned to my daughter about wearing my usual dressy attire - my one good dress - she told me to toss it, get something new. (It is nice to have a daughter clue me in, as I would have worn that dress for the next 20 years!)I probably would have more clothes, if I enjoyed shopping. My usual attire are REI pants, all the same color and style, and I've been known to be so uncommitted to my appearance that a week will go by and I will have worn the same outfit all week - just so I don't have to think about what to wear.
I'm most comfortable wearing hiking or gardening gear - casual tough stuff, like over-sized jackets and muck-boots - clothing I can share with George, if he needs another layer on an outing.
Not only do I have zero interest in clothing, but I loathe shopping - the wearying nature of it, never finding a fabric I like, or a style, or seeing shoddy craftsmanship. I think, "I have better sense, than to settle for something so poorly crafted for such a high price!" I get abysmally self-righteous and disgusted.
Before long, two personalities inside my head are poised for battle, each with their own agenda. So, I set a deadline - 2 hours to find a dress, then I'll go home, with or without a dress. That makes me feel slightly better. But the two voices get more aggressive, one saying to "get a dress no matter what!", and the other saying "stick with what you've got, if it was good enough then, it's good enough now!"
I shopped for an hour, at Sears, Penny's, and then Macy's, trying to find a suitable, understated dress for all occasions, not just for a glitzy wedding. Everything I saw was bovine, huge dresses tailored for many American women; cheap fabric, poor sewing, ugly patterns. Everything was horrendous - I didn't see one thing I could wear.
In the ten years since I last bought a dress, even the mannequins looked bigger! Layers of fabric were superimposed on each other, jewelry was chunky. The materialism, the excess, was simply overwhelming. I glanced quickly while moving through the aisles, feeling fabric, looking at colors.
I saw one unusual color - eggplant - and stopped. I pulled the dress out of the clearance rack. It was originally priced at $130.00, had been on sale, and now Macy's just wanted to get rid of it for $30.00. I decided to try it on. The sewing, the lining and seams, were done to perfection - and this dress could keep me warm, with long sleeves and a heavy inner lining. As I bought the dress, I felt a small moment of sadness knowing that the Asian designer who created this dress didn't get sufficient payment for her work.
After I bought the dress I purchased $1.99 worth of maroon-gold bangels. That was my spending spree for the wedding. I went to Starbucks and got coffee, sat down and watched the shoppers go by. What a relief to get this over!
I tried to find a pair of shoes to go with this dress, but nothing fit - my bunions create a problem, and my heels are too narrow. I have to go with laces or straps. I have a pair of all-purpose dress sandals, so I just wore them. A friend suggested the option of dress boots in winter, but I don't have any. For fun, I put on my dress with my huge Cabela's muck boots and looked in the mirror. I ran and got a silk scarf I use for food styling, wrapped it around my neck and laughed, imagining my grand entrance!
