Dress shopping

In case anyone hasn't noticed, I am not feminine nor fashionable and I am very thrift conscious (putting it nicely).

Last week I went out shopping with Marlene to buy myself a dress to wear at Leiya's upcoming wedding.

I rarely wear dresses.  I am a jeans and fleece type of person.  I wear the same black tennis shoes to absolutely everything.  My wardrobe is the same going to church, walking the dog, teaching, visiting friends. 

I already had the idea that my normal style wasn't going to be appropriate wear as mother-of-the-bride and when I'd been in Detroit helping Leiya choose her wedding dress, I had scoped out the possibilities for my own outfit.  It wasn't really a great time to go dress shopping because everything even slightly formal was tending towards the Christmas season on reds and blacks...   Leiya's wedding is in May...

And besides, I already had a nice black dress that I had bought one summer when Takumi took our family to a formal night club in Los Angeles.  I LIKED that dress and I have never worn it again!  I'll wear my formal black dress!  Why not?!  In Japan the mother of the bride (and the mother of the groom) would wear a black kimono with elaborate embroidery along the hem.  Black is a formal color!

While chatting with Tony's mother (Leiya's future mother-in-law) I asked her if she had thought about what she was going to wear.

"Not really...  Probably not a long dress..."  (Whew, good!  I wasn't too thrilled about wearing a long dress either.)

I piped up.

"I was thinking of wearing a black dress I have..."

"Black?!  Oh my!  I don't want anyone to think I'm not happy about this wedding.  I'm definitely not going to wear black!"

Oh...  Okay, I guess I've been out of the States too long...  Black is out for a wedding.

I didn't want to try and buy a dress in Japan, one, because it is too expensive.  Two, because I find it hard to find clothing that fits me.  So the last day that I was in Detroit, Leiya and I hurried into a dress shop and I found a paisley dress that I thought would work.  A little on the playful side but it was that or the black dress... 
 
I got back to Japan and showed Marlene my dress.

"Nice dress.  But it won't work for a wedding.  Too casual.  You'll have to find something else."

Rats.

So Marlene and I went shopping.  I avoided the very expensive department store in the city just because I knew there would be NOTHING there within my budget (and my budget was minimal).  We started at a medium priced department store but right away things began to spiral downwards...

"Size?  Um...  In the States I can manage an 8 or 9.  In Japan?  Size 13?" 

"Sorry, we don't carry size 13."

"Okay, let's try 11.  Uh. NO.  These dumb dresses don't even zip up!"

It is very depressing to begin feeling slightly elephantine...  Nothing fits or if it even zips I have to hold my breath and push flab back into hiding.  I was ready to give up immediately though Marlene kept prompting me to "try it on!"

We hit another store with basically the same results.  This is a wild goose chase!

At the third department store I found a pretty blouse that I could envision wearing again someday with my jeans...  Maybe with a skirt I could wear it to the wedding?

"You are NOT going to buy a blouse to wear at your daughter's wedding just so that you can wear it again with jeans!"

Marlene keeps me in line.

After a few more tries we came upon a formal dress shop that I was ready to walk by just because I could tell that the prices had a couple more zeros than I was willing to spend.

"Try it on!  Just get an idea of what you could look like."

I tried on a blue dress.  Hey!  Nice!  It DID look nice.  And it zipped up.  And it was comfortable.  But it was just a plain blue dress.  No pattern, no lace, nothing fancy about the style.  Just blue.  Maybe a bit boring even.  And WAY too much more than I was willing to spend.  I wasn't even a great fan of blue... except for blue jeans...

I pointed at a turquoise dress whose color I liked.

"Try it on!"

Hey!  Nice!  And it fit, and it was comfortable...  but I looked at the price tag and about choked!  $750!  That's almost what I paid for Leiya's wedding dress!  Get this off of me!  I am not buying any dress that costs that much!

"Marlene!  Would you honestly think of paying that much for a dress?"

Marlene admitted that maybe she'd never got quite that high. 

Marlene took pictures of the blue dress and the turquoise dress so that I could send them to Leiya to get her opinion.  And later I did send them and added that I probably wasn't going to buy either dress but so far those two were the only ones I could fit in.

Leiya wrote back...

"Wow!!  I love the dark blue dress!  So cuteeeee♡♡♡"

"Really?  So plain!  That one is less expensive..."

"I think it's so bright & cute ♡.  Ohhh so cute!  & elegant ♡"

"Well... if that's the one you want me to wear I'll buy it..."

To make this long story short...  I showed the pictures to three of my other friends over the week, and of course Tetsu too.  And EVERYONE said the paisley dress was out and the BLUE one was in!  By the end of the week I finally realized that I didn't really want to think about dresses anymore...  That I actually had $200 in gift cards that I could use, and that there was a 20% off sale going on until the end of the month.

Saturday I went back to the store, with TETSU!  Now that was an expression of love on his part as he hates shopping even more than I do and just walking near ladies clothing areas gives him a stomach ache.  He came into the store with me.  (He declined to sit in the chair the store clerks offered him and stood by the exit).  He even waited while I tried on the dress again and showed him.

"Great.  It looks great.  That's the dress.  No problem." and he was out of there.

 So I bought the blue dress.  With my gift cards and sale it was back in my budget.

 Whew!  I am so glad that is done!