Saturday, August 1, 2009

The Great Dress Experiment

For the last two weeks I've worn only dresses. I'm seeing how long I can go for and now that I've gone for so long I don't want to break the streak (disclaimer: I am not part of the camp that believes all pants are inherently evil on women... although it is getting more and more difficult to find modest pants these days. Is it just me, or do they keep getting lower and lower? ). Before my pregnancy I found a box full of clothes from high school, including my favorite pair of jeans. They were advertised as "low rise" and at the time they felt incredibly low. I squeezed into them to see if they fit and found that they were a full two inches higher than average jeans are these days.

Now that I think about it, I guess this started after a debate on CAF where quite a few of the women insisted that dresses are extremely restrictive. I argued against this point (see I end up on the "dress only" side because when the lines are drawn there seem to be only two sides, and I'm definitely not on the "I want to look sexy and I don't care what anyone else thinks" side) and thought I should give it a try, day in and day out, and see how it worked. That means wearing a dress when I go on my morning walks with the baby, wearing a dress in the garden, and wearing a dress while going about my daily tasks. And since walking where we are is basically hiking, because the terrain is so rough (no pavement anywhere in site, if you don't count the pad where dad and Paul park the cars), I hike in a dress.

The first thing I found is that I have way more dresses than pants! I just never realized it because when I'm not leaving the property for the day I usually decide to wear pants. I've also gotten a lot of "why are you so dressed up? Are you going in to Mass today?" questions from the family, who may or may not think I've lost my mind completely. I also noticed that my longer skirts are very versatile for hot and cold weather. When we drove to the beach to escape the heat earlier this week we dressed for the cooler weather. When we drove home the temperature climbed 40 degrees in two hours. By taking off the sweater I had been wearing I was suitably dressed for the new, higher temperature. Everyone else needed to change into something cooler!

I'm not sure how long I'll keep up the every-day-even-at-home part of this, but I don't feel compelled to give it up yet! Maybe I've just finally overcoming the throwing-myself-onto-the-ground-kicking-and-screaming hatred of dresses that I had as a child. These days I actually find myself liking them. That's a big step!

3 comments:

  1. Some internet friends and I do a seasonal "Week in Feminine Dress," inspired by this article at Ladies Against Feminism... we take pictures over the course of the week to demonstrate that pretty can be practical too. It's great fun, and 'cause we're always challenging each other to be a little more stylish and creative, we always discover "new" old outfits buried in the back of our wardrobes.

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  2. You know, I really enjoyed this post! I don't have many dresses, but I do love skirts! Thing is, is I seem to not wear them too often anymore. I just hate the feeling of not being able to sit cross legged and things like this. But probably wearing some spandex type shorts under the skirt would help with this!

    My boyfriend's mother always seems to wear skirts and dresses. I think I've only ever seen her in pants twice in the 4.5 years I've known her, and those two times were when she was going for a long walk/workout.

    I think your post has inspired me to wear skirts more often!

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  3. I don't wear dresses, but I do wear long (almost ankle length) skirts, and I find them both comfortable and practical...very cool in hot weather (you get a nice breeze around your legs) and in cold weather I wear leggings or thick wooly tights underneath and a petticoat. I have done the housework, the gardening and all sorts in my skirts, with no inconvenience :¬)

    I do wear trousers, but have a few long tunic tops which cover my bottom! LoL!!

    Mrs.P xx

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