Dressing for the occasion.

My latest issue of 'Worn' arrived the other day so I took the opportunity lent to me by a couple of days off work to snuggle up and read through it with a cup of tea and a slice of parkin. I found one article in particular to be really interesting. Stegelmann wrote about her wedding and the obstacles she faced in finding a dress in the run up to the big day. She didn't want a traditional one (she wasn't having a traditional fancy pants wedding) but she found it difficult to be happpy with whatever she was finding. In the end she wears a really lovely, vintage, yellow silk wiggle dress. But what she learns about dressing is far more interesting than the actual outfit chosen. Here is a little paragraph that I really appreciate

"From religious leaders to garbage collectors, we all have outfits for everything we do. Our clothes help establish our place in the world. I hadn't wanted to care about what I deemed to be the superficial trappings of a wedding....I'd only considered what the wedding meant to me, to us. But, like so many other rituals, a wedding is for the guests. It lets the people who love us gather, celebrate, and acknowledge a change in circumstance. In some weird way, it holds the same significance as a funeral. We are pack animals and we celebrate (and mourn) together. And whether we're in white or black or yellow printed silk, dressing for the occasion shows respect and a willingness to participate. You don't have to look the same as everyone else, but you have to mean it."

She goes on to describe her brother overheating in his "buttoned shirt and necktie", her editors new gold shoes that had given her such blisters that "she'd actually left bloodstains on the heels" and her own narrow cut dress made her hop up and down the lawn but "there we were, breathless and blistered and grinning like idiots".

Isn't that such a sweet and truthful observation?! The number of times I didn't put any effort into my outfit choice and would wear my day to day clothes for special occasions now makes me cringe. My Mum still doesn't like what I wear, but at least now she appreciates that I put effort into the outfit and therefore that makes her happy. It's not about fitting in, it's about making the effort. I think that's the reason I always cry in teen films when a young person makes the effort of getting ready for an event and ends up getting crushed becuase teenagers don't always make the effort so it's that much more special when they do (massive generalisation there!). Classic examples are...

Ross in Friends getting dressed up to take Rachel to the prom when her date doesn't show up, but then he does show up and Ross is left behind....

That bit in Never Been Kissed when Drew Barrymore is all dressed up in her hideous pink monstrosity and thinks she's going to the prom with the cool guy but it's all a big joke and....oh....god....I cry EVERY time (not that I have watched this film more than twice).