Of all the questions that you could ask me, the rhetorical “what am I going to wear?” sets off a flurry of reactions in me. For a start if you have a choice of what you’re going to wear then you shouldn’t be whinging about which outfit you’re going to choose, but be grateful for the clothes you have, in my mind. However I can resonate with the panic that can hit when you don’t have suitable clothing for an upcoming event. Not only is the event out of your comfort zone by requiring clothing that doesn’t live in your wardrobe but as you reply to the invite an invisible clock starts to count down the days, hours and minutes until the event start time. This time pressure exacerbates the sense of panic as you only have a finite number of minutes to search for, try on and buy a whole matching outfit that will be deemed appropriate for the wedding, cocktail party, hen party or other occasion that you’ve been invited to.
This series of thoughts is whirring around my mind right now as I have not one but two clocks counting down the finite period of time between today and the events I have tickets for.
They are very different events, one is an awards ceremony, the other a champagne reception at a prestigious venue in London. Both events are a million miles out of my comfort zone but at the beginning of this, my sixty fifth year, I set an intention to take sixty five jumps out of the security of my comfort zone, these two events equate to me diving off the middle and top diving boards respectively so certainly qualify.
I’ve never been a skirt and dress kinda girl, except when my mum used to sew all of my clothes and I wore what she told me to. Ever since I’ve been allowed to make my own choice of clothes I have opted for soft fabrics and a looser fit. I have never owned or hired a little black dress in my entire life and my father even joked about me wearing white jeans for my wedding day.
I’m one to take on a challenge, though to be totally honest my finger wavered over the digital button to apply for tickets to the House of Lords event for some considerable time. A thousand objections leapt into my mind as I pondered whether to go for it or not. How would I get there? Would I get lost travelling across the city on my own? What would I do if my back pain became severe when I was out especially when I was in the reception itself? Who was I to think I was worthy of attending? Then once I’d heard that I’d been successful in being allocated a free ticket to celebrate the success of small businesses up and down the land ..what on earth was I going to wear?
That old chestnut of a question popped up and would be silenced. My first action was to check out the dress code. It is quite simply, Summer. I then looked at the photos of last years event you can see above, on the invitation email. I noticed all the women are wearing summer dresses, some strappy, others more formal, many floral with a few being a block of colour. On zooming in this first impression was confirmed.
It seems I need to find a summer dress that fits and suits me with a light jacket to wear over it as June isn’t always “bursting out all over” as the song would have us believe. Then I’d need a bag and a brolly and shoes or sandals that were comfortable to walk in but that compliment my outfit. All this to find and buy in approximately six weeks.
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