I had a breakfast meeting this morning. My office is business casual on its best day, so I was excited to wear the J. Crew chambray dress I'd picked up (for a song) this weekend at the outlets. I excitedly debuted it to B, since he loves when I wear dresses, and his response was, "Is there a belt?" Well, no. Does it need one? I asked him if it made me look fat since it was straight up and down and he said he felt like it would look better with a belt since it would show some curves. I didn't have time to put one on, so I threw a belt in my bag and headed out the door.
I liked the outfit. I like when things are a little shorter but loose, so I don't feel like I'm showing too much. But because I often exhibit little to no confidence of self, I then fretted all morning about whether I should belt it or not. I belted it and asked my coworkers. The two of them agreed that they liked it with the belt. I had one of them take a picture.
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| Hello, linebacker shoulders. |
And it turns out, I hated it with the belt. I don't like the shape the dress takes on, I don't like the emphasis it puts on my shoulders, and I don't like feeling like I'm wearing something short and tight. So even though three people have told me to belt it, I'm not going to do so. Because really, it's about how I feel in the clothes, not how others perceive me. At least, this is what I tell myself. And I'm going to try and use this as a lesson in being confident in my own outfit choices. If I feel good in it and it's occasion appropriate, I'm going to wear it.
Wanna see something else I wore?
Mickey Mouse earrings! What what!
Also I got a sweet purple band-aid at work. Since my shoes are red, I feel like one of those Red Hat Society ladies. You know, "When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple With a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit me."
And you know what? That sentiment kind of fits perfectly with my outfit dilemma today. Maybe others don't think my dress suits me the way I want to wear it. But I like it, and I don't care. Why wait until we're old to wear red with purple or things that don't "suit"? Who gets to decide what suits us anyway?
In the poem from which the Red Hat Society derives its mission statement, Warning by Jenny Joseph, the author declares that in her old age she will wear what she wants and act silly in order to "make up for the sobriety of my youth." But you know what? I don't want to have anything to make up for when I'm old. I'd like to have a little more fun and a little less (figurative) sobriety now.
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