From a tiny, cotton sun dress, to the elegant, pearl-embroidered wedding dress; from Jersey, to priceless silk; from frilly Victorian, to the sleeveless, straight shift of the 60’s – it’s all about the dress; especially during prom and wedding season.
Few things spark the magic in a little girl or woman like a new dress. I suppose because it simply makes her feel pretty and special. I know you’ve heard the song, Try a little tenderness, recorded by numerous and diverse artists such as, Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Sheena Easton, Michael Buble, and most recently, Amber Riley of the TV show Glee. A snippet from the lyrics makes my point:
She may be weary
Women do get weary
Wearing the same shabby dress
And when she’s weary
Try a little tenderness
You won’t regret it
Women don’t forget it
I’ve decided to call May and June Season of the Dress. It turns out, this time of year runs up dress sales like December runs up Christmas sales.
There’s the prom dress: Mine was very different from the ones I see in the store today, but I remember the day I wore it like it was yesterday. It really was about the dress, not who I was with. I slid into the car slowly and tried not to move as we motored down the street. My boyfriend asked me why I was sitting so far away (back in the day of bench seats) and I told him I didn’t want to wrinkle my dress.
Then, there’s the wedding dress and all the dresses worn in and to the wedding: Despite the prom being all about my dress, my prom date decided he wanted to marry me anyway. So, not long after I wore that prom dress, I walked down the aisle in a gorgeous, white, wedding dress. Today, pretty much anything goes, from black to white; from flowing-in-the-breeze cotton for a beach wedding, to the Princess Di gown, forever etched as a video archive in every woman’s mind. Hmmm… that makes me wonder how many women make getting married all about the dress. Oh well, that’s a topic left for my novel, “Fireflies”.
No matter that it may not be a prom dress or wedding dress, Try a Little Tenderness and buy the woman in your life a new dress during this, what I now call, Season of the Dress.
Trying a little self-tenderness,
Ruthie