For me, it's the mighty pen and a stunning gown by Anthropologie.
I stumbled upon this wonderful short narrative piece by a blogger, JLgerhardt, and I couldn't resist sharing it!
"Why I'm Not Allowed to Daydream in the Dressing Room"
I’m at Anthropologie and I’ve already broken two of my cardinal shopping rules:
- Do not go into Anthropologie.
- Do not touch the merchandise.
3. Do not daydream about wearing the clothes.
Here I go…
When I wear this dress people will see me differently. I’ll step out of the background like an actress stepping into a lone spotlight. I will be respectable and mature but still fun and unconventional. I’ll look like I’ve just come back from a trip around the world, like I, only minutes ago, left a so-cool-you-don’t-know-it’s-name gallery, like I have class or, at the very least, style.
I may as well take it to the dressing room. There, looking at myself in the mirror wearing someone else’s clothes, I can step outside my stay-at-home-mom, covered-in-snot reality. I can be someone new.
I forget, conveniently, that the dress is dry clean only, that I’ll wear it once (to a pizza buffet, not an uptown soiree) and then throw it in a pile of clothes awaiting the day when I have enough extra cash to take it to the cleaners.
This dress will not change my life. It won’t fit my life either. It will make me painfully aware of the life I wish I were living. It will mock me from the dirty clothes pile. It will make me wish I had better shoes to wear with it, a more flattering hair color, daintier earrings.
Whatever it is I expect from this dress, I can be assured it will not provide.
But here in the store, holding it close to my chest, smelling that perfectly new smell, all I can imagine is a new me, a better me. In this dress.
I love it. I love the artistic vision behind the clothes we wear, the clothes that have yet to even come into existence because they are being conceived in the mind of a renowned designer at her drawing board in NYC or the Academy of Art student in his sketchbook. I love the potential for clothing to speak through us and transform us into someone new. Or even to reveal a part of ourselves we didn't realize we could be. The beauty of clothing? It is universal. Everyone is an artist in this way, even if you don't carry a paintbrush or hold a camera.
Her piece also got my brain buzzing about Anthropologie's fall catalog...
Hellooooo boots. Hello prints and colors like the changing trees and sunsets. Hello socks and scarves and full skirts. Hello mustard yellow <3!
A tip of my hat to creative writing, fashion, and fall in their beautiful marriage!
Gabrielle
P.S. My hair is currently in Phase Two! This is quite the process, let me tell you. But it will be worth it, I just know it!
