The last time I bought a fancyschmancy dress was to wear to Governor Gilmore's inauguration two years ago, and I had no idea what to wear because I don't usually attend fancy dress functions. I'd love to do it, but Chris won't, so we don't. Anyway, I called up my former step-mother, my father's second wife, the socialite, who told me that I needed to wear a dress that was floor length, and my shoes needed to match, and I couldn't wear leather shoes, and I couldn't carry a regular purse, but I didn't need gloves. She suggested that since I was in the Washington metro area I should be able to find a place that advertised that it had dresses for special occasions, and I found one in McLean, which is an upscale suburb. The woman there was very helpful, she was the owner, and it was early in the day, and they weren't busy, and I tried on twenty or thirty dresses until I found one that I thought looked ok. She had hundreds of dresses, all formal or semiformal, some of them were so gorgeous but in tiny sizes, 1, 3, 5, 7. I wished I was a size seven! It wasn't exactly fun, but it was tolerable. I did my usual thing of somehow inducing her to tell me her life's story, turns out she had a messy divorce and was interested in my thoughts about it once she found out I was a lawyer. She bought the shop with her divorce settlement, but she'd made a go of it.
I did have the fun of going to Saks and sneering at *their* merchanise because it wasn't good enough for me. I think they were shocked.
The dress is black raw silk, with very dark gold beads embroidered on the bodice, and when I was picking out shoes I had the choice of black leather shoes that fit and black silk shoes that almost fit. I chose the silk, which was a terrible mistake. No one could see my feet at the Inaugural ball, it was too dark in there, and most of the women didn't ask my stepmother what to wear, so they were wearing leather shoes, semiformal, you name it. I promised myself I'd never buy uncomfortable shoes again, last time I promised myself that was at my wedding, hope I keep it next time. I spent most of the ball sitting down or standing at a tiny table with my shoes off, and couldn't dance. |
