THE WINNER of Debra H. Goldstein's FIVE BELLES TOO MANY is Margie Bunting! Margie, email (hephron "at" gmail dot com) me so I can connect you with Debra.
True, virtually every item she had in her arms was grey or black and soft and comfy. Aka winter pajamas, or call it Covid-chic, or wardrobe for aging in place. At any rate my daughter shook me up and got me hunting online for more colorful (at the least) and chic-er (at best) items to add to my closet, and making piles of redundant gray comfy items to consider giving away.
That’s when my computer started serving up this ad.
Over and over.
It’s Halston. $695. (Marked down to $479 at Bloomies.) The model wearing it is 5’ 10” tall and wearing a Size 4. Helpful information for determining it's suitability.
It is not washable. And I’d have to silly putty it to my chest.
What did I do to merit lime green sequins? What does the Internet know about me that I don’t know about myself?
Because the truth is I LOVE this dress. That is definitely me… in my dreams. Sparkly and slinky me, definitely not “mother of the bride” me or Grandma Me. Perhaps me accepting my award for best suspense novel ever written. I can dream…
What’s your dream outfit, something you've always imagined yourself wearing and stopping traffic? Maybe you were lucky enough to actually have it and wear it?
And do you find the Internet has started serving up your dreams? "They" are watching, you know.
The extent to which they are watching is truly scary. That dress? Definitely not me, but I hope you get your chance to wear it, Hallie! Hmm, a dream garment. I certainly had one or two when I was younger that perfectly and looked smashing - one of which I made myself.
ReplyDeleteEDITH: Wow! I am impressed because I wish that I knew how to make my own clothes. Though I can mend clothes, I do not think I know how to sew clothes. However, I did learn how to knit a sweater.
DeleteDiana
Hallie here - Blogger is going to drive me up a tree, not letting me sign in as me... Edith, I'm dying for details...
ReplyDeleteIt was a fabric that was stretchy and slivery blue that looked like underwater. Long sleeved, mostly to the floor, but it mostly looked smashing because I was thirty and slim and fit and healthy!
DeleteEdith, wow! Sounds like a dream dress to me.
DeleteDiana
That is hilarious. I saw the title of today's blog long before I saw the dress they are pushing you to buy.
ReplyDeleteI have had my dream dresses and am so glad that I did. Some of them were low cut and had to be worn braless but those days are gone.
Hallie again: Wish I could say "I have had my dream dresses ..." but the closest I've come is a black banlon (remember that?) turtleneck long-sleeved floor-length dress - very formfitting. Repurposed a few years later for my daughter for her witch's costume at Halloween.
DeleteOkay, that is a lovely dress . . . .
ReplyDeleteAs for a dream outfit, I’ve not considered what a dream outfit might be . . . but sparkly is always good . . . .
The internet always makes strange suggestions, but it’s never anything I’m even remotely interested in, so I generally don’t pay any attention.
HALLIE again: Very wise, Joan.
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ReplyDeleteHallie, so funny and so true. "They" are out there and listening in at my house too. Though sometimes their interpretations are way skewed...and that's funny too. Alas, any dream dresses involve me being the very slim girl I was, and tall, which i never was. I did wear miniskirts, though, back when. One was daffodil-yellow suede! Sigh
ReplyDeleteHallie again: mini minis and hot pants … my Goldie Hawk Days
DeleteYup, me, too. I once wore a lavender hot pants suit to a wedding. I must have looked INSANE, but it was very very chic in 1973. :-)
DeleteHANK: As a young child in the 1970s, I NEVER liked clothes. It was not until the advent of Princess Diana in the 1980s when I finally started to love clothes. As a child, I wore regular clothes to school. At home or when we went to visit family and friends, the only clothes I would wear were what I call "storybook Princess dresses". LOL
DeleteDiana
HALLIE: No dress dreams since where/when would I wear it?
ReplyDeleteI know I can't avoid the Internet cookies & ads based on my search history all the time. But any time I want to do a lot of searching without being tracked, I use "incognito mode" on my Chrome browser & my VPN to hide my location. Used incognito mode to do extensive searches before finally booking my flights & a 10-day Airbnb apartment booking for Minneapolis Bouchercon. No follow-up ads.
Hallie again: chrome incognito mode! Writing it down for the next time I research poisons or bombs (for a novel of course!)
DeleteGrace: off topic but there was a bit on the local.CBC news about a study on brain fog from long covid out of Western in London. Thought you might be inyerested
DeleteDEAUN: Thanks, I will check out that CBC London story.
DeletePrivate browsing mode in any browser works well. I never use my browser in anything but that mode. Also never use google search engine! Use DuckDuckGo as your search engine, the results are not affected by who pays and they do not track your searches.
DeleteGRACE: How do you use the incognito mode on the Chrome? thanks, Diana
DeleteDIANA: On a Windows PC, open Chrome in the normal way. Then, click on the 3 vertical dots near the top right corner of the browser. The third choice (on my menu) is "New Incognito Window". Or, if you have Chrome saved on your PC taskbar, you can right-click your mouse on the Chrome icon and choose New Incognito window.,
DeleteI suppose I could have worn a dress like that when I was young, pre-kids, because I had chest (or didn't have it, as the case may be). I never had the hips though. Even at 12, my aunt called me "thunder thighs." Good peasant breeding stock.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I've ever had my dream dress. I did have mini skirts way back in the day and those were fun. Which is why when The Hubby was dismayed The Girl wanted to wear skirts with hems above the knees and said, "You don't wear that" I replied, "Not any more, but when I was her age, absolutely!"
Hallie here: sounds like a very mean auntie - those kinds of remarks sting and stick
DeleteWe all learned very young just to smile and nod when my aunt (ironically the baby of the family) started expressing opinions.
DeleteElisabeth here. “They” have “decided” that I would be very interested in all things needed to live in Georgia… real estate, utilities, stores, banks. No dress shops. My only Georgia experience over 30 years ago changing planes. “They” are way behind the times. Happy Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, they are watching, for sure. So annoying. Grace makes a good point about 'incognito mode'; must learn how to do that.
ReplyDeleteAs for a dream dress, no. But I would *love* to be able to wear the kind of flowing, high-waisted trousers and chic blouses that Katherine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall wore many (many) decades ago. I love that look, but lack the height to pull it off.
Hallie here: loved her crisp whit blouses with turned-up collar - if only I knew how to starch and iron
DeleteOh yes, agreed: those turned-up collars!
DeleteSO agree. The turned-up collar. I still do that, actually.
DeleteHank, of course you do! You are so gorgeous. Your wedding dress is the stuff of dreams!
DeleteAw, Judy...xx and thank you, yes, that dress is literally one of a kind. xx
Deletecj Sez: Love the dress--color, putty, and all. You would look smashing in it and what a statement you'd make. At 5'1", the closest I can make myself come to that is wearing a lime green, skinny workout T,
ReplyDeleteHallie here: sequined!
DeleteI don’t have a glamorous bone in my body but I’ve always loved dresses and still wear them in the summers. They are just cute and comfortable in hot weather but I wore beautiful long dresses a couple of times. One of them was at my ball, it was a long yellow dress with tiny white flowers, sleeveless but with a collar covering part of my arms. I looked beautiful in it, if I can say so myself :).
ReplyDeleteHallie, how come that your daughter calls you: Mommo ?
Danielle
Hallie here: on Mommo I have no idea - it evolved - the grands call me Grommo
DeleteGoogle having decided to protect me from myself, I just shot half an hour creating a new password, but now they are letting me log on as me, instead of anonymous.
ReplyDeleteAh, the dresses of dreams. One I tried on when I was a tiny little thing, back in the early Seventies-- black Quiana (remember that?), floor length with poufy puffed sleeves and a low scooped neckline and a fitted waist, and I looked even tinier, but I couldn't justify it.
And one I did own that wouldn't cover half of me nowadays. I wore it to the LBJ Inaugural Ball. It was floor-length moss green velvet, with thin vertical panels of cream-colored brocade. The neckline went straight across, a tad lower than I probably should have worn out in public, but at least it was held securely by moss green velvet rope straps. I wore it with 16-button white kid gloves (that's about 24 inches, or mid upper arm for the uninitiated) and cream colored pumps, and hair piled high (It was 1965) in an updo that took me four hours to comb out the following weekend. (And no bra!) And no, I don't have a photo, alas. (For Jimmy Carter's inaugural ball, I wore a floor-length crepe Adele Simpson sheath, black with huge red flowers, low-cut scoop neckline. Again, no bra.)
I have no idea what I wore to Bill Clinton's 1993 inaugural ball. I just remember being exhausted. That was my last. But if you can't wear a fantasy dress at the Oscars, the Inaugural Ball is almost as good.
Ellen, do tell how you ended up going to not one, but THREE Inaugural balls!
DeleteI do remember Qiana. A 1970s designer named Charles Kleibacher used that fabric in his designs a lot. He was the curator and director of the fashion collection at Ohio State's Wexner Museum for many years, bringing their collection up and into prominence, and at one point he was a frequent speaker at professional sewing groups I was involved in.
Hallie here: those gowns sound fabulous - and yes … you went to THREE inaugural balls?!?!
DeleteEllen, what memories!!
DeleteELLEN: Inaugural Balls! I think we would love to see a photo of you wearing a dress. Though I have never been to an Inaugural Ball in America, I met the Lady Mayoress of Edinburgh and she looked like Joanna Gleason. I was on the Ballet Committee and co-hosted a table at the Ballet Gala. I wore a beautiful violet purple empire style dress. I wore a matching violet purple bra under the dress so it looked like it was part of the dress. LOL. When my boyfriend and I went to the Black and White Ball in 2008, I wore a white dress with gold lines that was very similar to a dress that Catherine Middleton wore years later.
DeleteDiana
I am notoriously camera shy but there actually was a lovely photo of me in the Adele Simpson with the late Owen, taken by his sister, not at an inaugural ball, but at his ranch. Alas, like so many other things, it was lost in the last move. As one of my Irish friends once remarked, three moves are worth a fire. My last one certainly was.
Delete"They" are listening, but they must speak Russian or something, based on the interpretations.
ReplyDeleteIt's a gorgeous color, but there's nothing to that dress. In the mid-'70s I had a white halter dress, fitted and floorlength, with a slit up the front. It was dead sexy, but I only got to wear it twice, and then it sat in my closet until it literally disintegrated. It only fit me for a brief interval, anyway.
One of my favorite ever outfits was one I made. Fuchsia Ultrasuede slim skirt, and an orchid sandwashed silk blazer that was lined with silk organza. I had suede flats the same color as the skirt, with charcoal beads around the throat of the shoe. It was chic, easy to wear, and packable because of the organza that impeded wrinkling. Now the fabric alone is impossible to find.
Hallie here - remember when you saved money sewing it yourself? Those days are long gone
DeleteAn but Karen is an amazing seamstress. Mine always looked as if I’d made them
DeleteKAREN: Sounds lovely. Of course, my talented late mom sewed all my nice work clothes & my university formal two-piece black & red silk top & skirt. I have a fave group photo of me wearing a gorgeous turquoise raw silk suit that my mom made. Alas, I am 2 sizes larger than I was in 1994 but I wish I could still wear that suit!
DeleteHallie, up until I retired I sewed what I called gourmet clothing. It was NOT cheap, because I used high quality, mostly natural fiber fabrics like wool, linen, silk, even cashmere and alpaca.
DeleteIn a sense it was saving money, because I got luxurious custom clothing for way, way less than it would have cost at a designer atelier.
Karen in Ohio: A talent for sewing clothes is very Impressive!!! Diana
DeleteI don't really have a dream dress. Over the years when I was at the peak public part of my career I did have some that I felt really confident in, but nothing I can really dredge up at the moment.
ReplyDeleteDuring the covid shutdown, working from home, I started doing some online clothes shopping and had a kind of funny thing happen. Ann Taylor Loft started pushing me ads for this cute blue flowered sleeveless trapeze dress. It was adorable and I really did like it, but I sure wasn't paying the asking price for a dress to wear only at home. For six weeks or longer, they kept pushing those ads -- and the price kept creeping down. Finally, it hit a level I was comfortable with and I ordered it. It is now starting its third summer as one of my favorite garments!
Hallie here: I’ve had that experience at Eileen fisher
DeleteYes, sales come to those who wait..xoxoo YAY!
DeleteYes! Sales comes to those who wait.
DeleteNo idea what my dream dress would be. I loved the dress I wore to my eldest son's first wedding; it was navy with shear sleeves. So me. Since then I haven't even seen anything I truly like, let alone love. I recently bought a dress for my Granddaughter's graduation. It was navy with something small and white printed on it. It looked and felt more like a nightgown than anything else. I got one of those suspender-ish things to kind of pull it in in the back, but it didn't help a whole lot.
ReplyDeleteI ordered a pair of shoes which didn't fit right so I sent them back. Where I live there is no place closer than 39 miles or so to find dress shoes. But now the internet keeps showing me those shoes every day. That's annoying, not helpful. But why or why is the internet showing me little girls and toddler's dresses? I simply cannot figure out where they got that idea.
Hallie here - that’s kind of creepy - thinking about how to work it into a plot
DeleteSee? Russian, Judy
DeleteKaren
Many years ago I nearly suffocated in a dressing room trying on a beaded gown that slipped overhead. Had visions on newspaper headlines "Vane woman smothered by dress." Didn't buy it. ,- Keenan
ReplyDeleteHallie again: ha ha ha! More than once I’ve been stuck in a dress - it’s dire when you get stuck in a jumpsuit
DeleteHallie again: ha ha ha! More than once I’ve been stuck in a dress - it’s dire when you get stuck in a jumpsuit
DeleteHallie, didn't you use a jumpsuit in one of your books. I'm sure you'll give the lime green number to a deserving character...maybe with red hair?
ReplyDeleteIf I have a perfect navy blue dress in my closet (I don't at the moment), I'm set for weddings. This is a test: how many dress ads will pop up in social media today?
OOH--love that experiment!
DeleteBack in the day, when God was young and I wore dresses, I recall two favorites that I owned thirty years apart. One was a soft gray silk print and one was a navy silk with a tiny white dot. Both had swirly skirts and scoop necks. Both had wide belts for my then narrow waist, and both made me feel like a princess. Therefore my favorite dress would still be silk, but no belt this time. I’m leaning toward a periwinkle blue, long sleeves of course. Because the less I see of these arms the better. No sequins. And washable please.
ReplyDeleteRhys: that outfit ? No way. I’ve never worn anything where a boob could escape! One of my fellow Edgar nominees wore a similar dress in black and looked fabulous ( but she was young and gorgeous)
ReplyDeleteMy dream outfit is what Helen Mirren wears to the Oscars
I have some suitable and sensible evening outfits but none that wows I guess I go for chic but sensible
Yes, Rhys, I saw that photo of her in that dress!
DeleteDefinitely watching!
ReplyDeleteThe dress is gorgeous, Hallie - seriously gorgeous. I had two all-time favorite dresses and I owned them both. One was a purple to the floor sheath with orbs of colors that were complimented by the purple - I actually loved it enough to use as my first wedding dress. It was a Halston, and my other all-time favorite dress was also a Halston gown, black - with openwork sleeves a turtle neckband and a plunging neckline - hum, the description sounds very dominatrix, but it wasn't at all. I wore it for New Year's Eve 1972 - it was a very good year - my date said it made me look like Cinderella with a past. LOL
Rhys again: the internet has decided that I’m really rich! I get ads for a home in La Jolla-/ sixteen million! Perhaps they’ve mixed me up with Nora Robert’s or Danielle Steele
ReplyDeleteI can't think of a dream dress. I did have a purple jumpsuit with big black flowers, a very tropical print, that I absolutely loved. I did some of my first book signings in that. Dream dress now is usually something from Sundance or Anthropologie, long and floaty, but they never actually work. I even ordered one from Anthro in the spring, so pretty in the photos. Horrible on me. It looked like an old granny dress. And those flowing, floaty dresses usually have a built in slip that you cannot get into, and if you do get into one, they only fit flat-chested women. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteDEBORAH: I remember your bright outfit at Bouchercon in Toronto. You always look beautiful. I thought Anthroplogie was for teenagers? I love Ralph Lauren because the clothes fit me like a glove. And I am "hard to fit". I am the opposite of most women. No biggie. Sometimes I have bought Dress T-shirts from the Men's Department because the Dress T-shirts from the Women's Department are too small (I have broad shoulders).
DeleteDiana
What a dress, Hallie! My dream dress was for a nonprofit gala of which I was co-chair. Floor-length hunter green sheath with a slit, long-sleeved bolero jacket same color with seed pearl trim. Lovely! I felt like a million bucks in that dress. These days, the internet spies have given up on me--I've marked everything they throw at me as 'irrelevant', so in desperation, they are now sending me streams of religious ads ('church'-related). That's okay, my propane company thinks I'm a religious organization, too.
ReplyDeleteFLORA: I am laughing so hard at this. I am thinking this would make a great novel. Your dress sounds beautiful. I love the color Green. The best colors on me are Royal Blue, Navy Blue, Emerald Green and Forest Green.
DeleteDiana
Internet is sending me sparkling jewelry, not dresses. That's usually what I sort of scroll through on Facebook. Any clothes I scroll through are much more utilitarian. Do you think that sparkly dress comes in light ski blue?
ReplyDeleteI KNOW they are watching! It's terrifying. I also now know NOT to click on something absolutely horribly ugly simply to look at it more closely--because they'll start sending me emails like--that dress you wanted is going fat NOW on sale! Hurry hurry! They are like those lizards who snap up your interest with their lizardy tongues.
ReplyDeleteRight? I made a joke about this Ad I saw on the Internet a couple of days ago and put it in my Instagram stories.
DeleteDiana
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ReplyDeleteI have my dream dress, and it is STILL my dream dress, and it still fits perfectly. My wedding dress from 24 years ago, huge tulle skirt (seven layers of knife-pleated tulle), tight strapless bodice, tiny waist, all black with gold sparkles. It is the prettiest thing I have EVER seen. ((My mother hated it--she said: That's a Barbie dress.))
ReplyDeleteBarbie or not, that dress is stunning on you, Hank!
ReplyDeleteAww..thank you! xxx
DeleteFlora, I agree with you. Diana
DeleteIt is a fabulous, dream of a dress, Hank!
DeleteHALLIE: Your post resonated with me today because I got a (to me) funny pop up from the Internet. It was from an hair company extolling (for lack of a better word) this new product that would make your gray hair go away. I had gotten another product from that same company because I was LOSING hair. I noticed that my hair color was becoming dark and I did not like it. I decided to stop using the product. When I met you at Bouchercon in Toronto, my hair was Ginger Red due to hair colouring. I colored my hair because I did not want to look like Cruella De Vil. LOL. I coloured my hair for the LAST time just before my Mom and I went to Left Coast Crime in Vancouver in 2019. My hair stylist said that now 90 percent of my hair was white so I decided to stop colouring my hair. It has been three years since I stopped coloring my hair. I do not mean to hoot my own horn but I have to say that I LOVE MY NEW HAIR COLOR. I did a poll online asking my friends if my hair looked white or Platinum Blonde. Everyone said "Platinum Blonde". LOL
ReplyDeleteOver the years, I learned which clothes look good on me. I would say that my dream dress was a Princess dress similar to the dress that the Princess wore in storybooks. Hey, I was Six Years old. I was looking at the birthday dress that Meghan and Harry's Lily wore and I had a similar dress on my first birthday. As a young child, I had similar clothes to what Princess Martha Louise of Norway wore. She and I are around the same age.
Though I see so many Internet ads like the example you posted, I always say to myself "that is for people in movies. It is NOT real life to me"
When I met you at Toronto, I remember that you wore beautiful clothes and your makeup was perfect.
Diana
Oh, wow!!! I live in jeans/jean shorts and tank tops and that is actually my dream outfit. LOL!!! Seriously, I have one dress that I love. It's become my awards/events dress. Cobalt blue lace, sleeveless with a high neck - Tadashi Shoji picked up on sale and still ridiculously expensive but I love it. My plan is to wear it so often the lace gives up in defeat.
ReplyDeleteJENN: These days I live in jeans too. Do you have a photo of that dress that you love? Cobalt blue is one of my favorite colors. I have two ? expensive dresses that I have worn forever! My clothes last forever. I never buy "fast fashion" because I tried that once a long time ago and ended up throwing them away after wearing them once!
DeleteDiana
Hallie, I'm afraid that dress would never be for me. Something that leaves that little to the imagination chest-wise wouldn't be at all comfortable for me, even if I had more to put in it. I'm not a prude, and I don't mind other women being revealing, but I just prefer a little more cover.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what my dream dress would be, but I've always loved the brown dress with the white polka dots that Julia Roberts wore to the polo match in Pretty Woman. I would love to attend the Derby at Churchill Downs wearing that dress with the hat she also wore.
OK, I forgot to correct the Anonymous tag to my name. Here are my comments again.
DeleteHallie, I'm afraid that dress would never be for me. Something that leaves that little to the imagination chest-wise wouldn't be at all comfortable for me, even if I had more to put in it. I'm not a prude, and I don't mind other women being revealing, but I just prefer a little more cover.
I'm not sure what my dream dress would be, but I've always loved the brown dress with the white polka dots that Julia Roberts wore to the polo match in Pretty Woman. I would love to attend the Derby at Churchill Downs wearing that dress with the hat she also wore.
Hallie here... or what about that amazing red dress JR wore in the movie ... sweetheart neckline. Too much for just about anyone but Julia Roberts.
Delete