Yes as sad as it might seem, Saturday night is the first time I have worn a dress in over 15 years!
It was an engagement party, with a 'casino' dress code, so I thought right dress it is.
2 weeks ago I went dress shopping, tried on 4, all hideous (I am in the plus size range!).
Went home very depressed, and resigned to wearing my 'usual uniform', of black pants, fancy black top.
Then on Sat am, 5 hours before the party, Mr Mel and I arrived in Sydney went to Castle Hill to get him a new shirt for the party. Found his shirt in the first 10 mins at Myer, very happy.
Wandered around, with Mr Mel trying to encourage me to look for another dress. I resisted, then we're outside of David Jones and I say 'stuff it I'm going in, I'll probably be back in 5 mins'.
So off I go, and wandering around the plus size section with a load of women at least 10-15 years older than me (so depressing if I'm being honest). And I spy a dress that isn't horrible and flowery.
I try it on and hello it actually doesn't look woeful, except for being sleeveless which i just don't do. So I wander out, with dress over my arm, and there's a nice bolero jacket type thing on a different dress. I try it on and it fits and actually looks ok.
Only issue is I wasn't in shopping clothes, so I only had flat shoes, ordinary bra, and no spanx type thingos on, so I'm not 100% confident.
I call Mr Mel and get him to come see. He looks at it on the hanger and says 'if you like it chickadee get it', I blah on about but I don't do dresses, I'm too yukk for it. What if I get it home and hate it.
He says if you get it home, with all your gear and hate it, we'll bring it back tomorrow before we head home and get a credit/exchange, no big deal. You've got your backup plan with pants & top.
So I buy the dress (sleeveless, v neck, black, lace from bottom of vneck, then a black ribbon under bust, and lace over flesh coloured under material, to just below knees. And a bolero type thing, black with short sleeves and flounces. $150 for the lot, not too bad.
So I get home, get all sucked in by the spanks, and proper bra, heels on, and it doesn't look too bad. I show Mr Mel & Sister In Law and they love it, but can tell I'm not comfortable/confident, so say try the pants/top on. I do and they say I look alot more confident, but both look nice.
So I thought bugger it, I'm wearing the dress.
We head out, and I'm very self conscious for the first 1/2 hour at the party, thinking everyones looking at my not so slim calves and thinking what's she doing in a dress.
Then 3 girls I've never met complimented me on my dress, all within 20 mins, the last 2 were in the ladies when I visited. And shazaam I feel ok.
I come back from the ladies and Mr Mel says 'what happened you look so much happier', and I told him what the girls had said.
He replied 'see chickadee, I told you that you looked gorgeous but you'll never believe anyone because you think they don't want to upset you, but a stranger saying it you have to believe it, you look gorgeous princess'.
While I think gorgeous is a huge stretch, I have to say I really really enjoyed my first dress in 15+ years. :)
So if any bigger than 'normal' girls are out there, don't lose hope, just keep looking for a dress that suits, it can happen!
The dress I wore
Till next time,
PS - thanks to all the lovely ladies on SS for their wonderful comments, it gave me the confidence to post about it here :)
