Thoughts on Dress Shopping

I took Nikki dress shopping tonight for an upcoming semi-formal and it was a night full of emotional revelations. This was the first time we had been dress shopping for a very specific event since she has grown out of the little girl’s section.

• I have a new respect for my poor Dad who suffered through many nights of me shopping for dresses for events. It was a hard thing for me to do and I at least understand dresses and clothing and could help find sizes and work zippers. He was 100% clueless yet he suffered through it with grace and I do not ever remember being irritated that he did not understand anything about formal dresses.
• It’s tough to watch your daughter learn the painful lesson that we all have to learn when we shop for clothes: Just because something is cute on the rack is NO GUARANTEE THAT IT WILL LOOK GOOD ON YOUR BODY. It’s depressing because SO MANY DRESSES LOOK CUTE ON THE RACK! You think the world is full of limitless possibilities! So many dresses to choose from! They’re everywhere! And then 2 hours later you are leaving the store with nothing but a wounded body image.
• Holy Crap, having a daughter is wonderful! I mean, we were both depressed and emotionally scarred from the failure of finding even one dress that worked, but what a really wonderful mother/daughter experience. I sat in the dressing room with her and we discussed the ones that looked great (most of the ones that fit her were a little too grown-up for her tastes, she wanted something fun) and laughed about the ones that look terrible. The best was the one dress that looked SUPER CUTE from the front but from the back, all of the material was bunched up around the zipper so it looked like she was hiding dinosaur scales or maybe a retractable set of wings.
• Women’s clothing sizes will drive you to insanity. I mean, I always knew that for myself but I tend to only shop at two stores so I don’t really see a range of terrible. We stopped several brands and stores for her. She tried on Smalls that were too small and Smalls that were too big. She tried on one dress that was a size 6 and it fit perfectly, and then she tried on one dress that was a size 0 and it fit perfectly, and then she tried on a size 8 that was TOO SMALL…WTF WOMEN’S FASHION?
• Marshall’s gives everyone a dressing room tag. If you are trying on clothes the tag has the number of items you are taking back. If you are just a Mom helping with zippers and buttons you have a tag that says “Just Visiting.”

Nikki ended up just texting her young aunts last night to see if they had anything she could borrow. We will be going to try on dresses at one of their houses next week. I’ve also been sent a link by my friend for affordable boho formal dresses, the boho style is ageless and I know Nikki will love them, we do have some options to work through! FINGERS CROSSED.