7 Dresses - The Inadvertent Remix...

As I mentioned last week, it was obscenely hot last week in Chicago. So hot, in fact, that I basically couldn't bear the thought of wearing any more clothing than absolutely necessary, and I came to realize by the end of the week that I'd accidentally repeated my "Seven Dresses" experiment from last May. At that time, I had tons of dresses that I never wore, so I launched a mission to explore the depths of my closet and let my dresses see the light of day.

I ultimately didn't learn much from my experiment other than that I perhaps shouldn't over-analyze things so much, but it did break down some of my mental barriers to wearing dresses when I'd spent the vast majority of my life in pants. Ever since that week over a year ago, I've tried to wear a dress at least once a week, and given my desire to look nice for my boyfriend and when I go out to see my friends, I've been sticking to my goal and then some.

However, since I also hate shaving my legs, pants still play an important role in my wardrobe. This week though, I just couldn't stand the thought of fabric touching my legs in the oppressive heat, so dresses became the order of the day, and I still haven't broken down and put on pants yet this week either. Since you guys seemed to enjoy that voyeuristic glimpse into my closet last year, I thought I'd recreate last week's line-up of dresses, none of which were repeats from the last "Seven Dresses," due to my weight loss earlier this year. Some of the pieces were new, and some of the pieces were holdovers from a skinnier time in my life that I optimistically hung on to over the years. Without further ado, here they are:


Day One: I bought this dress back in March, when spring and summer clothes were just starting to show up in stores. It was still way too cold in Chicago to wear it, but that didn't stop me. Initially, I paired it with tights and some purple flats and just tried to think warm thoughts while I wore it out to such events as seeing Working with Justin, and Mother's Day brunch. I like that it has just enough pattern, but not too much, and above all else, that it has sleeves. As I mentioned on Day Four of last year's series, I don't know why dresses with sleeves are so hard to find, but given the heat, it was nice to not have to throw a cardigan over this dress. This dress has definitely gotten a lot of wear the past few months, and it's one of my favorite things in my closet right now.


Day Two: This dress came to my closet courtesy of my best friend, Lisa, who very generously gave me a Macy's gift card for my birthday. I could have used it for something practical, and I actually intended to use it on shoes but I couldn't find any that thrilled me in the entirety of the State Street store's enormous shoe department. A new dress was the next natural step, and this one caught my eye. It's perhaps the most flattering of all the pieces I wore this week, and it even looks acceptable without the matching cardigan, despite the fact that I generally don't like showing off my arms in public. I think the vertical stripes and embroidery serve to elongate my body or something. The studded details on these sandals from last year go perfect with the beading on the dress (which is hard to see in this picture, but is very much there). I think this dress has somewhat of an Eastern European folk costume aura about it, and I've noticed various Eastern European men checking me out when I've had it on. Ladies seem to like it too, and I've directed several to the dress department at Macy's so they can get one of their own.


Day Three: I found this dress when I was out hunting for something to wear for my birthday party this year, and it stood out to me both because it was purple (which is my favorite color for clothing) and because it had ruffles, which might just be my favorite clothing detail. I feel like it strikes just the right balance between casual and dressy, and as a result, I've worn the crap out of it ever since I bought it in late March. It's a perfect transitional piece for wearing to the office and then out for after-work activities with either Justin, friends, or both. In fact, I've worn this dress so many times that I actually noticed a hole in it when I wore it that day, and I'm a little bit devastated about it, to be honest.


Day Four: Ordinarily, I would consider this dress too fancy to wear to work, but after sweating all day in the first three dresses, they all needed to be washed and I was running out of work appropriate dresses. Considering this was the hottest day of the week, there was no way I was going to wear pants, so I sucked it up and wore this sundress that I originally purchased to wear to Easter brunch. I'd originally brought a different dress home to wear that weekend, but it was a wardrobe holdover from college and while it once again fit, Mom and I agreed when I tried it on the day before that it didn't fit well, so we ran out at the last minute and found this dress. I liked the graphic nature of the pattern, and the bold contrast between the flowers at the bottom and the black and white body of the dress. You might also notice that I skipped wearing a shrug that day, despite my policy of never going out with bare arms. It was just too damned hot, and after a certain point, I just didn't care anymore.


Day Five: I cheated a bit on Friday, since I was officially out of work-appropriate dresses, but I included a skirt on Day Six of last year's "Seven Dresses" so I figured I was still in the clear. I had to perform a bit of DIY trickery to make this outfit work, because I actually don't have any summery skirt options that still fit me. This skirt was a full two sizes too big and a bit too long (I didn't discover until I was looking at the pictures from last year's "Seven Dresses" that anything below the knee actually makes me look shorter and I've subsequently adjusted my shopping strategy), so I hiked it up Steve Urkel-style, folded over the waistband so it was the correct size, and secured it with a bunch of safety pins. Since my top wasn't going to be tucked in and the skirt was relatively full, nobody could notice my ad hoc tailoring job. And do I really even need to explain what drew me to this skirt in the first place? One word: circles.


Day Six: I dusted off this look after pulling it from the closet and trying it on a half dozen times or so already this summer but never working up the nerve to actually wear it. I got this little number back in the summer of 2007, and wore it to a variety of events in conjunction with my graduation from Washington University in St. Louis, including both my graduation party and the family party my aunt Faye held in my honor. It technically fits again, though it's too long for my current taste, but it is by far the most form-fitting, body conscious outfit in my entire wardrobe. There's nowhere to hide in this dress. I figured I was safe wearing it today because the only people who'd see me would be Justin (who I'm fairly sure is fond of my figure) and my friends Natasha and Travis, who we'd invited over for dinner. Because this strapless dress has always had a tendency to not stay in place at the top, I paired with with a t-shirt underneath that also rarely makes it out of my closet. I'd ordered it from the Gap's website, where it looked like a lovely shade of pink, but when it arrived, it turned out to be roughly flesh-colored. I couldn't exactly wear it in public, but I thought it might make a nice layering piece, and I think this outfit proved me right.


Day Seven: Since I'd committed to going to Ravinia with Justin and would be spending a substantial amount of time outside, I needed another dress to stay cool. With the pickings getting slim in my closet, I decided to go with this dress, which I bought on end-of-summer sale last year. Due to the unfortunate timing of its purchase and my subsequent weight loss, I figured I'd never get a chance to actually wear this dress, as it is now too big. It's probably my least-flattering look of the week, but I tried it on with a variety of bras until I found one that allowed me to situate the embroidered bust properly. The sweater served to obscure the straps. I still got compliments on this look (and not just from Justin either), so it must not have been too bad, but it was definitely my least favorite dress of the seven I wore this week.

Ultimately, this installation of "Seven Dresses" was less of an experiment and more a matter of practicality. I did notice, however, that when it's brutally hot outside, dresses seem more a practical choice than a stylistic one, and virtually nobody comments on you being "dressed up." I do feel like I got better mileage from my wardrobe than usual, but at the same time, I would just as soon the temperature cool down so I can stop waking up at 6:30 every day to shave my legs to make them presentable in a dress. Seriously, Mother Nature, enough already!

And now, my question to you: Which look is your favorite?

20...

I bet right now, there's a piece of clothing lurking in the back of your closet that doesn't quite fit anymore, but that you can't bear to get rid of. There's a little voice that pops up every time you look at it, promising that you'll lose that extra weight and wear it again... someday. Every year or so, I try to cull my clothing collection, ridding myself of clothes I haven't worn recently, or won't wear again -- it's the only way to keep my closet even remotely manageable. Even so, there are a few select items that make the cut year after year, because some little part of me can't let go of them, even though they haven't fit in years.

Generally, my weight is not a topic I care to talk about. It's something I've been battling almost my entire life, but not a struggle I like to share with others. I can count on one hand the number of people I've opened up to about it over the years. So I'm not going to go into a deep, soul-baring discussion of it here. However, people have been mentioning it with increasing frequency of late, because they've been noticing a certain change in my appearance.

I've lost twenty pounds in the last six months. I haven't been on a diet per se, so I can't really explain to you how it happened, other than the benefits of therapy, and the effects of having a great boyfriend. By finding new ways to reduce and manage my stress and anxiety through therapy, and finding tremendous joy in my personal life, I find myself relying less on food for comfort.

As a result, I was poking around in my closet today, looking for something to wear, and on a whim, I reached for a skirt that's been languishing there since I was a sophomore in college, circa 2004. It hadn't fit in years, but I always loved it, and I'd been secretly hoping I'd get a chance to wear it again. With my heart racing, I pulled it on, and lo and behold, the zipper zipped and the buttons buttoned! I was so happy I very nearly cried...

So here it is, the skirt that I've been saving for the better part of a decade. It might not look like anything particularly special to you, but to me, it symbolizes a lot, and I'm proud to show it off to all of you today.

Democracy In Action...

It is only fitting that over the course of a weekend dedicated to a patriotic holiday like Memorial Day, true American values have won out in my dress poll. After all, what could be more American than our collective national obsession with breasts? By a narrow margin, Day 7 proved to be the most popular look, demonstrating once again the power of cleavage. It would be interesting to have a gender-based breakdown of the votes...

Am I wrong? Did people select Day 7 for a different reason? If so, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

Seven Dresses - Day Seven

Of all the seven days of this project, today proved the most difficult in terms of outfit selection. Not that I was even close to exhausting my supply of dresses (in fact, I discovered earlier in the week that I could carry on with this project for almost another full week without repeating myself), but because I was torn between two dresses. There was an adorable, very casual dress that had been sitting in my closet over a year without ever having been worn, and which would have been appropriate for the only activity on my agenda for the day, meeting Lauren for ice cream at the Turkish Festival. Then there was also a new dress, which I had already worn the weekend before to meet Lauren for brunch, and Zac for a date afterwards. It was a little much for so casual an occasion, but it was overwhelmingly cute, and still had that "new dress" aura that made it hard to resist sharing with all of you. Can you guess which one won out?

Nobody ever said fashion was practical -- of course I had to wear the new dress! At the store, I had tried this on on somewhat of a whim; usually I can never pull off wrap dresses. Every fashion authority that has ever written has extolled the figure-flattering virtues of wrap dresses and surplice necklines, but I have never been able to find one that worked for me, not without a lot of pins at least. My girls, it seems, don't like to be contained, and without a fully-stitched neckline, they are apt to make a break for it. Something about the material and the fit of this particular dress helps the neckline stay put and work its bust-enhancing, figure-flattering magic. I honestly can't get over how great my girls look in this dress, so much so that after trying it on, I went home, grabbed a coupon, and went back the next day to snatch it up before it sold out in my size. I simply had to have it.

Then again, that's how I felt about all the dresses that I wore this week. I just had to have them, and then I let them languish in my closet. But, if there is one thing I've learned this week, it is that I should bring them out more often and show them some love. I wouldn't want to wear a dress every day indefinitely (and goodness knows, I can't fathom how women did it for all those centuries), but doing it for a week wasn't as bad as I expected. The worst consequence of the Seven Dresses project was all the sleep I lost from having to get up early in the morning to shave my legs before work. Even so, I could definitely boost the dress-wearing to a couple days a week, instead of once every one to two weeks.

With all seven dresses under my belt, and the project successfully completed, I still lack an answer to the question that I raised on Day 3: why do I get so much more positive attention in a dress? Do I genuinely look better than usual? Is it because it's unexpected? Or do I just exude more confidence in clothes that I love? Perhaps I shouldn't over-analyze it. Maybe I should just accept the compliments, put forth the extra effort, and get more mileage out of my wardrobe. It might not be a very exciting finding for my experiment, but I suppose the answer truly is as simple as, just wear more dresses and you'll look good doing it.

Seven Dresses - Day Six

Okay, so today I'm technically cheating. This is not a dress, it is a skirt and sweater combination, but I have so many skirts languishing unworn in my closet that I felt it was still in keeping with the nature of this experiment. Besides, I had purchased this skirt with a certain event in mind, and that event occurred today, so I sort of had to wear it. Actually, it's somewhat fitting that today would be the day I would cheat on the Seven Dresses project, because there's something else I haven't been entirely honest about either -- I started seeing Zac again. In fact, we were really only broken up for about a week; I just wasn't ready to go public with it. I'm still not ready for a full-blown committed relationship again, but we're dating and enjoying each others' company, and for now, that is just what I need. It's also why I felt the need to bring redemption to the Day 4 dress...

I bought this outfit when we were dating the first time, after Zac invited me to attend his graduation, which was today. I wanted something dressy enough for such a special occasion, casual enough for the accompanying celebration afterward, and modest enough to be appropriate for meeting his family. I think this ensemble does all those things, and it has the benefit of being purple. The purple carries a special significance in regard to Zac, as I once bet him early on in our relationship that I could wear purple in some capacity every time I saw him, and not repeat myself for a very long time. This skirt keeps my streak going, and does it in style.

All things considered, I think skirts might be the worst piece of women's clothing. Sure, you get the added versatility of being able to wear them with any top you desire, unlike a dress, skirts otherwise combine all the worst elements of pants and dresses. As with dresses, you have to either wear tights or shave your legs, and worry about sitting in a ladylike manner the entire day. Like pants, skirts have a waistband, and therefore the potential for muffin-tops and general discomfort. Even though I don't particularly enjoy wearing skirts, just like dresses, I still seem to find them irresistible at the store. Perhaps I need some sort of shopping intervention...

Seven Dresses - Day Five

To round out my work week, I returned to another dress that is a favorite of mine to wear to the office. Although the dress itself does not have pockets, like the dress from Day 2, the sweater that I wear with it does, so it makes an ideal outfit for interview days. It's more special than my typical blouse and trouser combination, but practical enough for transporting and setting up video equipment. All in all, a good balance of form and function.

Generally speaking, I try to avoid pattern in my wardrobe. Loud, busy, all-over patterns make me feel like I'm wearing a sofa. I tend to stick to clothing with solid colors, but interesting shapes or special details. This dress was instrumental in opening my mind to experimenting with pattern. It predates the addition of the Day 1 and Day 3 dresses to my wardrobe by a couple months, and I believe that if I hadn't proven that I could pull off this much pattern in this dress, I might have steered clear of the other two dresses, which I have come to enjoy more than this one. It might not be my favorite piece, but it was significant in the development of my personal style, so I decided to include it in this project. Besides, I think the solid cardigan helps neutralize some of the visual impact of the pattern anyway...

Of course, this look had its moment in the sun as well -- I wore it to the Arlington Race Track to celebrate Dad's birthday last year. It might have been a touch too fancy for the occasion, but it was new at the time, and the allure of a new dress is hard to deny. When you have new clothes, it's difficult to resist the urge to show them off, and honestly, any excuse will do.

Seven Dresses - Day Four

Today's dress comes with somewhat of a sad pedigree. While most of my dresses are associated with a special occasion or happy memory, this one has no such good fortune. It has only been worn once, which isn't unreasonable, considering I just purchased it last month, but that one day just so happened to be the day that Zac and I broke up. Things had been tense between us for a couple days, and I could feel a confrontation brewing. I was feeling stressed and in low spirits, so I decided to throw on my new dress to remind myself that I am sexy and desirable. As I feared, things escalated out of control that day, leading to the breakup, but at least I looked fierce when I headed out with Lauren to lick my wounds later that evening.

This dress has several things going for it that I enjoy. It has sleeves (seriously, why is it so hard to find a dress that has sleeves? I don't like showing off my arms, and it's nice to not have to find a cardigan sweater to match every dress in my closet), the defined waistband gives me that much coveted hourglass shape, and, of course, it's partially purple. I really am a sucker for purple clothes, so much so that I even pulled out my purple flats to match (and they really do match, I'm not sure why the lighting makes this dress look so blue-violet -- it's really more of a red-violet in person.) Although the flats have less to do with complementing my outfit and more to do with the fact that after three days of heels, my feet were getting ready to stage a mutiny.

I was glad to wear this dress again. I like this dress, and it was time to reclaim it from its negative associations. Instead of "the breakup dress," now it is "the purple dress that got me compliments from five separate coworkers." It might not be a meeting with an important dignitary or a joyous family gathering, but if people want to tell me I look nice all day, who am I to turn them down?

As a result of all the compliments, I experienced an interesting phenomenon today -- for the first time during this project, I got a little depressed about getting all dressed up with no place to go. After all, I had on a cute dress and I'd spent extra time fixing my hair this morning; for me, this is about as good as it gets, appearance-wise, and yet I was headed home to eat leftovers and watch the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. I suppose it was bound to happen. Even if I wear a dress every day for a week, it's still enough of an anomaly in my behavior that it feels special, and it naturally follows that I should want to do something special too. It might make perfect sense, but that doesn't make it any less disheartening...

Seven Dresses - Day Three

Today's ensemble comes with a side of sacrifice: I woke up a whole extra hour early to shower in the morning instead of the evening before, as per usual, so I could shave and go bare-legged today. I willingly deprived myself of an entire hour of sleep just for this project, so I hope you appreciate my dedication.

I am kind of obsessed with this dress. I love the art-nouveau-inspired pattern, the autumnal color palette, the ease of its drape, and the fact that it fits like a dream. I used to have a pair of plum-colored tights that I wore with this outfit, but I've long since destroyed them after wearing this dress all fall and winter. Since the temperature spiked overnight, and it's warm enough to go bare today, I can wear it again, this time with a fun pair of new sandals that I picked up on a shopping trip Monday.

This dress has received a lot of hype since I purchased it in August of last year. I announced my joy over its acquisition on Facebook, quickly pronouncing it my favorite over all the other dresses in my wardrobe, and my friends clamored to catch a glimpse of my new love. However, I saved it for over a month, waiting for just the right occasion to debut it, until the opportunity finally presented itself in the form of a photo-op with Mayor Daley at a charity fundraiser.


Since then, I've mostly worn this dress to the office, on days when I needed a special boost. There's something about wearing an outfit you love that can lift you out of the doldrums, and put an extra bounce in your step. Each time I wear this dress I get compliments on it -- which brings me to an interesting observation I have made since starting the "Seven Dresses" project: I have been receiving far more compliments on my appearance than usual, generally speaking. Do I genuinely look better in dresses than pants? Is it that I wear dresses so seldomly that people assume I must be making an extra effort in an attempt to fish for compliments? Does the extra lift I get from wearing clothes that I love give me an aura of extra confidence that people pick up on? It's hard to say at this point, but it will be interesting to see if the rate of compliments continues as the week continues, and people become more accustomed to seeing me in a dress.

Seven Dresses - Day Two

Today's dress comes courtesy of Chicago's notoriously unpredictable weather. Truly, this dress ought to be out of season by now, but with a daytime high of 56 degrees today, I thought I could sneak it in for one last wearing. This was probably my most-worn dress of the past fall/winter.

Since this dress is all one color, and a little on the boring side, I like to spice it up with purple tights. I find myself drawn to purple in my wardrobe, even though it isn't necessarily my favorite color, and I occasionally pair this dress and tights combination with my favorite pair of flats, which are also purple. Today, however, I decided to go with these boots, which I've had in my shoe collection since 2006. I bought them because they were so darned cute, but 99% of the time, they sit idly in my closet, where I admire them from time to time, but seldom take them out to wear. Since this week is all about dusting off beloved pieces from my closet and showing them off, I decided to give them their due as well.

Thanksgiving 2009.

I adore a good sweater dress; I find myself buying a new one almost every year, but out of my collection this one is a little extra special because it has pockets. Comfort aside, pockets are one of the greatest things that pants have going for them over dresses in my estimation. Working at a museum, and setting up video shoots for a living, it is far more inconvenient to do my job without a pocket to toss my keys or an extra tape in. As a result, this dress was worn on numerous interview days. It's also extremely comfortable -- the sweater construction makes it warm, but the short sleeves prevent overheating. In fact, it is so comfortable that I wore it on the one day of the year when pants are a hindrance: Thanksgiving. No need to undo a button after you've inevitably eaten too much food when you're wearing a dress...

Seven Dresses - Day One

Every time I wear a dress, one of two things happens: inevitably, somebody asks me why I am so dressed up, as if I go around looking crappy every other day, and somebody says to me, "Aw, you look nice today; you should wear more dresses." I do have quite a collection of dresses in my closet, in fact, I have difficulty resisting them when I'm shopping, because I think I look good in dresses. Frankly, I have nice legs (they're my second-favorite physical feature), but I rarely seem to be able to work up the energy to showcase them by actually wearing the dresses I own. Wearing a dress takes effort -- you have to shave your legs or else wear tights and other uncomfortable foundational garments, and, to complete the look, schlep around in high heels all day. It's much easier to throw on a pair of trousers and forget about it.

But, as I was surveying the contents of my wardrobe last week, longingly looking at the beloved dresses languishing in the back of my closet, I decided it was time to bring them out to play. So this week, I will be chronicling my experiment in wearing a dress every day for seven days. At the very least, my wallet will feel better about getting better usage out of my clothing investments. In the best-case scenario, I will learn something about myself, and my self-image. With that, I give you the first dress in my line-up:

I really love this dress, so much so that it is the only item of clothing I have voluntarily acquired that is even partially orange. I had spotted it at the store when it first came in last year, and I loved it so much I was even willing to fork over the $90 listed on the price tag, but alas, it was already sold out in my size at that store, and online. I assumed it simply wasn't meant to be. Flash forward to a couple months later, when I was at a different location of the same store, perusing the clearance rack, when I found the dress, marked down to $15, and in my size! It was a minor shopping miracle!

Since I usually reserve my dresses for special occasions, most of them have some sort of story or memory attached to them. In the case of this dress, the occasion was seeing the President of the United States. Although I failed to get a photo of it because my camera battery died, this was the dress I wore to last summer's Obama fundraiser. I skipped the heels on that occasion though, knowing that I would be standing for long periods of time. Today, however, I pulled out the fancy shoes because I had to coordinate an oral history with former Congressman William O. Lipinski at work. There's something about the officious clickety-clack of heels on the museum's terrazzo floors that makes me feel like a mature, responsible adult, and that is precisely the kind of confidence I need to do my job. My feet might have been killing me by the end of the day, but nobody ever said fashion was practical.