Say Yes to the (Prom) Dress

I had a few moments to spare in a motel room the other day, so I turned on the TV and ended up watching a few episodes of Say Yes To The Dress. I don't get misty-eyed about weddings - frankly, I think marriage is an antiquated concept. But I love trying on pretty dresses. Only thing is, wedding dresses are kind of boring to me. They're all white (not that I don't like that color), and they all look pretty much the same. I was thinking how much fun it would be if they did a show about teens going around trying to find the perfect prom dress instead. Now that would be interesting to me. Prom dresses have such variety - just think of the colors! And they run the gamut from elegant to flirty. I know they sell whole thick catalogs of prom dresses in the spring, so I think this would be a popular theme for a reality show.

Anyway, I found myself in Macy's later that day trying on some prom-like dresses. I wish I could afford to spend $50-80 (or more!) each on dresses for my wardrobe. It's hard for me to find nice dresses on the cheapie racks that I both like, and can actually wear (and let's not talk about finding the right shoes to go with them!). I was telling my friend that if I could afford it, I would wear prom dresses everyday. I'd wear them just to lounge around at home. I'd wear them to do chores, or run errands. I'd wear them to the grocery store, or the park. I'd even play sports in them. When you don't have a lot of money, and you buy a fancy dress, you want to keep it nice, of course. But if I was like Pete Townshend, who can afford to trash a guitar at every concert, I'd totally buy up a bunch of prom dresses and then just wear them out, one after another. It would be fabulous.

This is me trying very hard to take a "fitting room picture" that doesn't look like all the others. There are only so many poses you can do standing in front of a mirror. There aren't many objects to pose on/with, other than the clothes you bring in with you. And you're limited by the scope of the mirror, and your ability to hold the camera steady (which is harder than it sounds - many of my potentially favorite shots have had to be discarded due to blurriness) and in the right position. Plus, you only have so long before the fitting room attendant is bound to start getting suspicious, so there's a lot of pressure. But still, after taking hundreds of pictures that all look very similar, I find myself desiring to innovate.