Thursday, August 7, 2008

Buying a new dress

I have a wedding to go to on Sunday and I really needed a new dress to wear. I have a great dress I bought a couple of years ago for just such an occassion, but said dress was purchased just a few months before I got pregnant with G - in other words, when I was 20lbs lighter than I am right now. Cute as it is, it isn't going to work these days. I have another dress in my closet that does fit right now, but it's not really wedding appropriate. It's more of a night out for a great dinner and tickets to the symphony kind of dress.

As an aside, am I the only one who's closet is filled with clothing of varying sizes categorized by such labels as "Too small, but likely to fit again soon," and "Too big, but saving for after the next kid is born," and "Too small and saving in the hopes that I'll squeeze back into it someday, by which time it will probably be too outdated to actually wear." Just wondering.

Anyway, I went out yesterday to find a new dress. Now, first off, it was simply heavenly to be at the mall, walking around, browsing through clothes... all with NO KIDS! No bulky stroller, no one whining for a snack, or that they're bored, or throwing fish crackers onto the floor causing me to run over them, or grabbing at everything within reach and pulling it off the hangers. Ahh, the sweet relief of solo shopping!

It was, however, far more difficult than I imagined to find a dress. Seems like a simple enough thing, to find a nice dress appropriate for an early evening wedding. Lots of stores carry dresses, right? Not really. Granted, I live in a small city, so the mall isn't much to get excited about. But there are a few big department stores and a range of other shops, some of which carry women's clothing, so I thought I'd have a decent selection to choose from. Not so much.

I started at Macy's, and really should have just stayed there. But of course, being the weirdo shopper that I am, I have to see EVERYTHING before I can make a decision. Overthink, much? So I found some cute options at Macy's, but had to venture further to see what the competition might be. I was amazed at how few stores carry dresses. Skirts, sure, but dresses were hard to find. Some stores had one or two, but nothing to get excited about. And the mall here seems to have a huge abundance of stores that I'm just too old for anymore. Not that said stores carry dresses anyway, but I felt like a huge dork wandering through stores that basically carry juniors stuff. I'm not 19 anymore, and I don't want to be one of those women trying to dress like I am. Granted, I don't want to go the other direction either and end up in frump-land. I tell you, shopping in your 30s can be hard - you're faced with stuff that is either too young (and would make you look trashy or just lame) or clothes that would look very nice on my mom, but too old on me. And my mom is a nice dresser, but I don't really want to dress like I'm in my 50s, thank you very much.

After wandering the mall a bit, I wound up back at Macy's and finally found a winner. It's brown with a cream paisley design on it; sleeveless and fitted at the top, with plenty of room for my still-too-large boobs (come on, aren't they supposed to get smaller again?), fitted at the waist right around the rib cage, and flowing down from there. See, I watch my "What Not To Wear" - thank you Stacy and Clinton for some good style tips! I wasn't really looking for brown, but the fit was good and I think the shape is really flattering on me. Hides my baby-flab tummy pretty well. Plus, it isn't black, which is a good thing - I tend to end up with black a lot.

So there you have it - a new dress. I also found some cute, and quite cheap, shoes at Payless. The dress wasn't exactly cheap, despite being on sale, so spendy shoes were out of the question. Now I think I need to find a necklace to go with it - something with blue in it, I think, to add some color to this outfit.

3 comments:

Rose said...

I'm glad you found a dress you like! I meant to ask about that!

You should have seen me trying to find something for T's high school reunion. OMG. Not only was I in the "I'm 30 and can't dress 20 and refuse to dress 50" but I'm overweight, then had extra swelling from my surgery, plus the broken foot.

No heels, no dress shoes, nothing remotely fitted. It was insane. I should have just gone for the tents.

Claire said...

Mandy, I kept meaning to ask you what you ended up wearing to his reunion. Dress shopping is hard!

Anonymous said...

The first night was a drinks and appetizers at a local bar/restaurant so I wore denim capris with a butterfly on them (you're sure to see them when we come) and a black top (not exactly wrap style, but sort of). The second night was a nice dinner. I wore a pair of more dressy black capris and a raspberry colored top. This one, only in a raspberry color. http://www.nyandcompany.com/nyco/browse/product_detail_with_picker.jsp?productId=prod570059&parentId=cat60042&subcatId=cat790002

Sunday was a bbq at the lake, so I wore (you guessed it) capris and a tshirt. Everything I wore fit in fine, but it was stressful at first.

Oh, and the first two events I wore these, in black. http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/shoes/womens/comfort/PRD~329668/NaturalSoul+by+naturalizer+Limelight+Slides.jsp

Yes, with a broken foot.

I am an idiot.