To: Rambi who wrote (49440 ) 4/21/2000 11:19:00 AM From: Ilaine Read Replies (1) | Respond to
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.
