Part one of four: The Stampede
Usually I’m like this: if I have to go somewhere where some kind of dress code is required, I think of what I like about that code, the colour, the weather, I picture what I’d like to wear and make do with what I have in my wardrobe or in the wardrobe of relatives. If I really have to, I’ll hit some shops.
But usually shops do not carry what I’m looking for: either I’m late of decades for that style or I’m forward of a couple of years… which is basically the same thing.
Me, hunting for a dress, look at the desperation in her eyes…
For my brother’s wedding, after being brainwashed like so (and also keeping in mind these guidelines, and these ones, and also these ones), I drew the conclusion that I would have liked to wear something simple like this:
teal
cocktail length
chinced waist
a line skirt
no sleeves
V neck
with a matching short sleeved bolero
Thanx to Lanterna’s brilliant idea I was already browsing ebay india looking for cotton sarees to have a seamstress sewing said dress.
Ok, at this point you might need a flashback.
Two days after my brother and his fiancé told us the lovely news, my phone rings, it’s my mom, usual chatter and then she’s all serious and she says “I’ll pass you dad, he has to talk to you”.
I panic, of course I panic, don’t we all panic when someone says “I have to talk to you”? And this time it was my mother telling me my father had to talk to me. Help!
“Cri, listen up”
“Yeeeeeessss???” Play cool, please play cool, he can’t see you, it’s just your voice, go.
“I’m going to be paying for the dress you’ll be wearing at your brother’s wedding, so pick a really nice one, whatever you want, but be it nice”
“Oh, is that al… I mean, wow, thanx dad!!!” whew!!!
So, turning to a seamstress wouldn’t have been such a folly (nor that expensive, actually the opposite…).
But, alas, the family women (and I hope they do forgive me for saying this, but I’m only reporting the truth… they usually have to write down on a piece of paper the proper procedure to turn on the PC and then what clicks are needed to go online), well, they found a website “thatsellscocktaildressestheyaresocuteyoushouldseethem!”
“Well, ok, I’ll check it out buuuuut… I was thinking of having it customma…”
“Whatonearthareyoutalkingabout? You and your hippie stuff, and how would you do it, do you have a taylor you trust? What? Cotton? A saree? Are you out of your mind? A saree’s not good you’re not going on holyday, listen to me yaddayaddayaddayadda…”
So, tramped over by a stampede of “yaddas and buts” I set the custom made dress aside (also because I couldn’t find sarees in pure cotton and shipped to Italy…)
What happens then? You stay at home, you browse websites so to spot something you’d like and then you go in regular shops to find something similar?
Maybe you do, maybe the “normal world” does so.
We don’t.
We organize military mission of six women, from 10 to 80 years old, and we ambush each and every (and when I say every, believe me it’s every) “formal gown” shop that we can reach within an hour of driving.
(continues…)