A new dress is a bit like a great wine

Despite what a couple people I know might have you believe, my wardrobe is – by modern standards – definitely not massive. It’s wonderful, beloved, and filled with well curated pieces, the overwhelming majority of which are vintage, repro, or vintage appropriate, but it isn’t Hollywood starlet sized by any stretch of the imagination.

It’s not every day that I add a new piece to my closet, be it something as small as a pair of lace gloves or as hefty as a winter wool coat, and new dresses are certainly not an item that comes my way all the time. This isn’t uncommon of course for many of us, but because dresses are (as a whole) my favourite type of garment, I’m prone to really savouring the experience when I do get a new (to me) one.

This past summer my mom and step-dad very sweetly wanted to give me a dress for my birthday (how awesome is that?) and so, knowing the budget I had to work with, I spent an evening searching for a summery vintage frock that would absolutely take my breath away.





I was thrilled to find such a garment, pictured above (from UK based etsy reproduction seller Oh Sew Vintage), in just one night and couldn’t order it fast enough. The dress arrived in good time and shortly after it got here, my mom asked if she could see it in person (she'd already seen the listing photos).

I ran to get it right away, beaming with happiness over the fact that it was even lovelier in real life than in the online shots. She asked me if I was going to wear it for a certain event we had coming up, and I said that while I’d thought about it, there were more reasons not to, than to do so, and as such I wouldn’t be wearing it that day. No worries, I assured her though, I’d be christening it very soon (and indeed I did).

Sometimes however, even when I love a dress madly, I hold off on wearing it right off the bat. I let it gather a little more age on the bar in my closet. I pull it out and look at it, admiring the fabric, cut, details, darling vintage buttons, and imagine how I’ll style it the first time, where I might sport it to, and if I’ll end up adoring it even more once I’ve taken it out for an inaugural spin.

I like having a dress or two in the wings, frocks that haven’t yet been worn, just waiting for a big event like the Christmas holidays, an anniversary or birthday, or perhaps simply something marvelous and fresh to don on an evening out on the town with Tony.

And so, later that night after my mom asked to see my new dress, it struck me that in a way that I see the garments I purchase as each being akin to an excellent bottle of wine, gathered and stored lovingly in a cellar for just the right meal, event, or random Tuesday that needs perking up when they'll be wholeheartedly relished and fully experienced for the first time.

Though I do not have a closet's worth of unworn pieces by any means, I generally do have a dress, skirt, or other piece (or two) that has yet to be uncorked (aka, worn) and which I’m thrilled to know is waiting for just the right moment, when I’ll bring it out of the dark (of my closet) and enjoy it for the first time in all its pleasurable, wonderful glory.

And to that fact I cannot help but raise a glass and voice a resounding "cheers"!