Dress Shopping

It is astonishingly difficult to find a decent dress in San Francisco. My assumed reason for this is that Women in San Francisco don't generally wear dresses. For the most part. It's not like Boston, where people sort of somewhat dress up for work on a regular basis. Here, people pretty much show up in jeans no matter what, and if they are nice jeans (or at least not horribly ripped), and you wear them with a nice shirt, that would be considered dressing up. I am pretty sure the women I see walking around in heels and skirts on weekends are in town for a wedding, or for the opera, or something, and they don't actually live here. Because if they lived here, they wouldn't be dressing like that.

But maybe the problem is not so much the dearth of dresses per se, but in fact the lack of dresses that are wearble. Most of what I saw was either balloony, or boxy, or strapless, or too short, or all of the above. What does it take to find a normal, below-the-knee dress that has a waist? Apparently, a lot.

I am convinced the 80's are not merely returning, it's like a zombie episode. It's the undead of bad fashion disguised as "designer" stuff. But just because it has the labels and a silhouette not quite like some other dress does not mean it is going to look good when you wear it.

You are probably better off wearing jeans. But do not - I repeat, DO NOT - peg the legs. Please.

There was one store that had both an acceptable number of dresses, and a high percentage of them that were wearable and/or interesting, and that was Anthropologie. Not that I could have necessarily worn them all, but at least I could appreciate the consideration someone took to make them look nice, rather than just stick some rayon on a hanger and call it a dress. I mean, because if I am going to spend money on something, I would like it be more or less stitched together, thank you very much.

So anyway. I did not find my dress at Anthropologie. But I did manage to find a dress. And I liked it even more when I brought it home than I did when I was at the store. Mission successful! I guess sometimes good things are worth the effort.