Dressing Up!

Seeing as how I have a fancy dinner ... at the PALACE OF VERSAILLES!! I better hit the mall and try on some dresses.

This is the trouble with living so far from your sisters ... I was in the dressing room with about 15 dresses ... alone! With just my cell phone!

So I snapped pictures of some of my favorites, which you'll see here.

My objective was to find a dress ...

1. About knee-length. Tea-length is preferred, as this is a black-tie optional event and I don't want to show too much leg. Is IS for Dave's company, after all.

2. Something dazzling -- as I will be in the same building where fashionable Marie Antoinette once lived (granted with a much smaller dress budget).

3. Something I won't look nuts wearing flats with -- because I AM wearing flats. I refuse to be handicapped by uncomfortable heels if I get a chance to explore the royal rooms or the fabled grounds. Gravel in heels? Nothankyou.

So my options were pretty good at the Lord & Taylor by my house. Here's a sampling.

TOP: This pretty gold dress was stretchy and tight. The sleeves were sheer, as was the bustline. It was just to my knees, too. The spangles got stuck in my hair and scratched my face as I pulled it off and on, though. Otherwise, a very solid choice.

MIDDLE: I think this was a Jessica Simpson label dress. It's a lacy frock over a while camisole. There was some weird gathering right at the belly-button. See it? And I thought the whole-see-through idea might be a little too casual.

BOTTOM: I loved this dress on the hanger, but less so on. I like wide waistbands that hide my less-than-hourglass figure. The bustline was cut a little too daring for my taste. But the skirt hit at my knees, so that was right. In the end, it was little less elegant than I wanted to go.

Decisions, decisions.

I did walk out of Lord & Taylor with a dress ... well, a skirt. I had this idea ...

More on that later.