Don't Fear the Dress

Whenever I went shopping for a night-on-the-town outfit I always avoided dresses that were the least bit form fitting. The main reason being that like many ladies out there, my biggest problem area is the lower abdomen/hip area. It just doesn’t look flattering in tight numbers that hug every curve which made me uncomfortable. For as long as I have done my own clothes shopping, I’ve gone for the dresses that have an empress waist style or a fuller skirt; never the little black dress that would surely display everything I was trying to hide.

That was until last year when I was desperately trying to find a new dress for our school’s semi formal. Everything I tried on was so similar to what I had previously owned; I didn’t see the point in buying it. Discouraged and with nothing else to try, I started browsing through my personal forbidden zone of dresses when I came across a sharp looking dress with horizontal pleating. Years previous I had also make it a rule to avoid this style or anything with ruching due to an unpleasant experience of my grandmother and aunt working in cahoots to force me into something more “modern” for the next school year.

Anyways, the material had a pattern I fell in love with and the back had an edgy geometric cut out that I was sure some magazine had informed me was all the rage. Not thinking I would like it, I tried it on anyway. The worse that could happen was that I look like a stuffed sausage in the privacy of the dressing room. I was in for a surprise. Instead of clinging to areas I didn’t want attention drawn to, the pleats actually formed a smooth silhouette over areas I generally had a strong dislike towards.

Now I’m sure most of you are saying, “Well Rebecca, everyone knows this,” but I didn’t! I must’ve missed the memo when they sent it out. Admiring myself in the mirror I felt silly for ever forbidding myself to consider a form fitting style. So if anyone out there was like me, and avoiding a more fitted dress because you feel you don’t have the “right” shape; stop it. Don’t disregard a style because of one bad experience or be afraid to experiment. What you wear makes a statement and what better statement is there to make than, “Look at me, I look awesome,” in that pleated dress.

Rebecca