January 19, 2008
The tale of the little black dress
The husband and I will get all glammed...er, dressed up come Saturday night for a company party. And so in the interest of meeting the minimum requirement of looking presentable, I shopped around for that proverbial little black dress. (Fashion gurus say every woman should have one in her closet.) Out here, where there is a dizzying, almost unlimited array of choices, finding a dress should be relatively pain-free, right? Not! I am small - in the vertical and horizontal sense of the word - but I am smaller than small by US standards. The hunt for the perfect dress is a test of patience. First there's excitement (Oh my God! That's just so cute!), then frustration (No size 0?), and finally desperation (Maybe I could fit into a 1). Four hours later, I was still wandering aimlessly at the mall.
Now, I like nice things but I'm also a cheapo. I credit my being stingy to a childhood removed from a lot of life's luxuries. (That would be the subject of another blog in the future.) My two-way spending test involves these questions: Is it necessary? Is it practical? That being said, I set mental cost limits and stay away from designer clothing stores. If I could find a $20 dress that looks like it just got off the runway, I'm a happy woman.
That night, however, I found myself walking into this certain upscale store. And found the right dress. At a price I wasn't willing to pay. It didn't help that the salesgirl was pitching the purchase as "worth the investment." She even hatched a plan for me - "Cook a real good meal for your husband, shower him with compliments and then put on this dress. You will look so stunning he will forget about the price." And with an important addendum - "Don't fight with him this week." Part of me was in love with the dress, yet another part was outraged at the price (which was equivalent to one month's pay for a mid-level editor in the Philippines). I needed someone to sway me over to one side, thus, I called up the husband. He said yes, so I walked out of the store with a new dress and a lot of guilt.
With that, I had no intentions of splurging on shoes to go with the dress. Heck, if I could find a pair of sexy heels at $30, I'll go for it. Last night, I redeemed myself from all the guilt associated with the dress when I snagged an elegant Nicole Miller pair for - you ready? - $16. So sweet! Of course, I do have to mention that I had to walk up and down aisles and aisles of shoes for two hours with my patient little assistant, Re'Sean. His mission that night was to find my size and every few minutes he would come running to me bringing a shoe which he thought was cool. (Hmm... I feel he deserves a reward tonight.)
So that is the back story of my little black dress. We'll see if the outfit will get rave reviews from the husband!
In the meantime, I am posting pictures taken during a dinner date this past weekend with some friends in the area. We kicked off the evening with a sumptous dinner at Asian Bistro (although we were irritated by the feeling of being rushed by the waiter) and capped it with some drinks at Whitlow's on Wilson, which is supposed to be one of the happening (and very crowded) bars in Clarendon. A Vietnamese-American guy approached our table asking about our nationality, wondering if we were Vietnamese, too. After some hi's and hellos, he told us he likes adobo. Interesting, eh?
