The other night, I went to a formal Christmas party – which, really, is the best kind of Christmas party – and it was fancy. I mean, yes, it was formal, so it was fancy in that sense. But, it was also fancy because with my master’s degree, I was one of the least educated people in the room. I would have been intimidated, had I not been wearing this amazing dress (also, everyone was super nice, so it was fine).
I will tell you a secret about this dress, though…it was free. I was given this dress, brand new, because the zipper was broken. But, you know, zippers are easy to fix, so with a little help from my neighborhood seamstress, I had the perfect dress for a formal Christmas party that cost me nothing* (*okay, she didn’t fix it for free. So, technically, my gown cost $20).
I chose to keep the look simple with classic gold and silver jewelry, and soft gold shoes. The black panel in the middle is actually of my own invention because I need to do a few more crunches before I could wear this dress sans panel…
Btw, slits are pretty hard to get a picture of without pulling an Angelina Jolie, but when I was a kid, I was a little obsessed with slits (they seemed so adult and sultry in a socially-acceptable way), so that picture in the bottom corner is for 8-year old me’s benefit.
Was there an element of fashion that captured your attention when you were a kid? Slits, shoulder pads, stirrups, elbow pads on men’s jackets (with those leather buttons that I always thought looked like crushed junior mints)? Do you have any of those things in your adult life, or did they fall casualty to adulthood practicalities and changing style?