A Tale of Two Dresses

My niece and I went shopping on Friday and found not one but two dresses for the wedding.  We had a hard time initially because neither one of us was used to retail shopping.  We are thrift store and consignment shoppers.  I had a serious case of sticker shock.  I picked up a skirt and was astonished to see that the price was $149.00.  Upon closer inspection, I realized I had misread the price tag; the actual price was $1490.00.  I think my brain could not comprehend paying more for a skirt than the mortgage payment on a house!  Needless to say, we left that store empty handed.

After a strolling around a bit more, we stumbled upon a department store that was having a sale on the formal wear.  This store had prices that were much more reasonable. There were a couple of racks with dresses marked 25% off.  My quest was to find a dress that was: 1.  silver, 2.  floor length and 3.  size 16.  There was one such dress on the rack.  I snatched it.  There was only one other dress that was a size 16.  I took it too, just in case I didn't like the silver one.

Both dresses fit quite nicely.  My niece and I agreed that the silver one was the better of the two.  I went to pay for the dress and the sales clerk told me that there was an additional discount that day making the price of the dress less than half of the original price.  I needed no more confirmation that this was the dress.

But, there was another dress on the rack that kept calling my name.  It fit none of my criteria.  It was not silver, short and size 14P.  (remember that the borrowed dress was a size 14 and far too small)  I just liked the dress and needed to try it on for some reason.  Now, I'm definitely a petite when it comes to height.  Often my experience with petites is that I need to go up a size.  It seems that most manufacturers  think short people are smaller all over.  So, if a 16 fit, and I wanted to get a petite, I would need an 18P, not a 14P.  Still I forged ahead.  There was no harm in trying on the dress.

I asked the sales clerk to hold the silver dress while I tried on the other one.  Low and behold, I got it on and zipped!  Granted this dress was much tighter than the one pictured above.  I'm not sure if I could have sat down with out ripping seams, but it was on & zipped.  This dress fit like I expected the borrowed one to, once again adding fuel to my ire about women's dress sizes, but I will refrain from that diatribe today.

My sweet niece actually gasped when I walked out of the fitting room.  I looked that good in the dress.  She began saying how with the proper foundation garments, that would fit much better.  She was right and I knew it, but the dress was totally wrong for the wedding.  Then I remembered rehearsal dinner.

So, I bought both dresses!

I modeled both dresses for 65MD when he got home.  He preferred the short dress as well saying it didn't look as tight as it must have felt to me.  Sadly, however, he thinks the dress is too much for the rehearsal dinner as it is a more casual affair.  I can't justify keeping the dress since I don't plan to be this size for much longer.  I'll take it back and remember how good it felt to wear it.

BTW, Timothy, I was totally wrong about plus sized clothing being matronly.  I got my bling on for sure!!!