This is my perfect "date night" outfit. Since my relationship is long distance at the moment I don't get any date nights, but Thomas will be back in town in only a week and I'll have someone to drag along with me to dawn shoots and diners afterward. Quite looking forward to doing things with him around Lancaster and beyond. Anyway, even without date nights I still really enjoy getting dolled up. Perhaps it is because I spent so many years in jeans and tee shirts and wasn't allowed to wear makeup until I was a senior in high school that now I love the ritual. I always feel better when I take more time to get ready, or enjoy the time preparing for a party as much as the event itself. Of course most days I'm sans dates and sans parties and look a bit formal. Little black dresses might be a classic, but they can still earn the odd look in today's more casual culture and look out of place at many venues where "dressed up" seems to mean dark wash denim and stilettos. But I'm less concerned with the opinions of people I don't know these days and more willing to wear clothes that make feel good even if it means standing out. I think a lot of people don't realize that attention is not the end-goal of many more extravagant dressers (of which I barely qualify). It's not just that people don't only dress in a way to appear more attractive (re: Monday's post), but in a way to make them feel more comfortable and carry some of their interests in a visual manner. Attention is often a secondary, unasked for effect to dressing creatively or slightly out of sync with current culture.
CONVERSATION