Sunday, May 9, 2010

A Sunday in dresses; or, if my life had a costuming budget


I have been obsessed with dresses lately. It got me thinking about my Sunday pictoral. In a perfect world I would be able to wear the perfect pretty dress to each perfect Sunday event.

Here is a Sunday in dresses.

Coffee

Remember this nightgown so you can compare my morning version to my "night" version--apparently in a perfect world I change in the middle of the night. 

 I love comfy mornings with my coffee. Most days, I get up an hour earlier than I need to so that I have time to linger over my coffee.



Champagne Brunch

This is currently my favorite dress. I love the way that the bright floral fabric contrasts against the softer muted version of the same fabric. This dress is from Nordstoms.com (most of them are) and it sells for about $200.00. There is one review of this dress. A woman gives it one star because "it just doesn't look good on me." Hmmm, how is the fault of the dress? Blasphemy. 






Shopping, Matinee, Or, I don't know, a Baseball game. After all I did say this was a pefect world!

 I love old reels of baseball games from the 1940's and 1950's. All the men wore suits and hats, and the women wore dresses, hats, and usually carried a handbag. Super glamorous. It always seems such a shame to me that we don't seem to dress up for anything any more. A few years ago a college volleyball team was criticized for wearing flip flops to a trip to the White House. Many people took offense to the criticism and defended the athletes saying that we don't live in a formal world anymore, and that at least the flip flops were "fancy."  




 
Afternoon Tea

 While in London last summer, my BFF and I went to high tea in a relatively hoity toity teahouse. We tried our best to dress up, but between living out of a suitcase and needing to wear footwear that could handle the 5+ miles I tend to walk while in London we were WAY underdressed. Combine that with the dress of our companions (one a teenage boy who was in jeans, nikes, and a windbreaker, the others not much better), our American accents and lack of reservations, and well, the waiter was trying to be nice to us...but. It was what I call a Pretty Woman moment. You know the one where Pretty Woman tries to shop in the expensive boutique on Rodeo Drive...

I have a feeling that if we walked in off the street in this dress, I imagine that waiter would have been a little less snooty. Well, prolly not if we were BOTH wearing this, that would be weird!

Afternoon Walk (Jane Austen Style)

Yes, I know that if I really wore this--and the shoes that seem to go with it--I wouldn't REALLY want to walk very far. And certainly I would not want to walk over rolling hills covered with green grass that most likely has just recently been soaked by the rain... But, wouldn't it be lovely?
 Dinner

When I was 19, I dated a boy with a lot of money. How much money? A lot. He took me home to Nantucket for Easter weekend. His was an "old money" family and when he awkwardly revealed that he had bought me some clothes for the weekend, I was a little offended: until I saw them. I have never worn such wonderful clothes before, or since. The relationship never really went anywhere--we were of a different class and religion. But, that experience allowed me to see a world that I had only read about. The day I walked downstairs into a formal dining room in a dress very much like this one changed me.
I lost the clothes when I moved home. I was flying back to California and I could not afford to take all of things on the plane with me. I asked a friend to hold some boxes for me until I could afford to have them mailed; even though I sent the money not too surprisingly the box with these beautiful clothes were never sent.

Cocktails
 For my birthday I had a party with a cocktail party theme. My friend Tiffany wore a dress like this. I thought it (and she) was so beautiful.

And finally...
                             Bed
Going to bed is much sexier than waking up. I will let you draw your own conclusions as to how I get from this sexy white satin gown into the comfy pjs from the "coffee" photo above.  Ahem, I did say this was a Perfect World ;)

7 comments:

  1. Lovely dresses! I like dresses, too. I wear them quite often in the summer, but I hardly ever buy new ones, so each summer, I drag out the same old dresses...

    The first one reminds me of Monica Lewinski (I'm fairly certain I've spelled that incorrectly...), but the rest are, as I said, lovely, and I enjoyed your descriptions that go with each one. :)

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  2. I especially like your shopping matinee, afternoon tea, dinner and cocktails dresses.

    I know what you mean when you say we don't seem to dress up for anything anymore. Ah, well.

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  3. B-- Ooohh a Monica dress! Does this mean I have a shot with Bill Clinton? And for the record, it is pajamas ;)

    V--Aren't they lovely! The shopping/matinee dress is the only one I could prolly afford. But I am trying to keep from buying it as I HAVE got to cut back on spending. But, it is lovely isn't it?

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  4. Pajamas? Even more appropriate, really. :)

    As for the matinee dress, Kat, don't you have one very similar to it, but in navy blue? I remember you looking quite pretty in it. (Methinks I need to reduce my use of "quite")

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  5. B-- Yes, I do. Good memory! It is navy and it is an cotton eyelet fabric. Unfortunately it is one of those in the "too small" category. But, see today's post! I'm working on it!

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  6. Wishing I had a girl! I even saw some at Costco today :)

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  7. The movie is called "The Guitar." I caught it on IFC one night. I think I missed the first 10 minutes.

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