A dress worthy of the Philadelphia newspaper
Customer story #2,476
A darling regular customer stopped by the store the other day and was looking for a dress even though she already had one. “I have a black dress but I saw this and think I should try it on” she said with a mischievous eye… Stories and countless lines have been delivered about black dresses – Audrey Hepburn eternalized their allure in Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Tom Cruise proclaims Reneé Zellweger isn’t wearing a black dress but an Audrey Hepburn movie, others say the following:
In thinking of the little black dress, one normally thinks of Coco Chanel, the woman credited with inventing almost every aspect of chic. It makes perfect sense that the little black dress would be a product of Chanel’s flapper era. Besides being black, the little black dress’ defining characteristic is being sexy without being revealing, something flapper style perfected.
The little black dress is generally a variation on a sleeveless shift. It is never overly tight, though it may have a fitted bust. It skims the figure rather than clinging to it. As hemlines change, the hem of the little black dress rises or falls with the times, but it always hovers around knee length.
While the little black dress is legendary it can be a bit boring sometimes, most especially when you walk into a room and wade the sea of men and women in formal black-tie and black dress wear. Our discerning customer knew what she was in for and she wanted something different. What she found herself in was beyond “something different”, it was transcending a fashion statement into a fashion moment. A moment where the collective cognoscenti stopped and looked at whom who had made an entrance into the room. A moment where every husband gets pinched by his wife either for staring or for the quick sneer of “why did you let me wear black”.
The Melinda Eng red silk strapless gown (with a silk shawl) had been cut for her, or at least, so it seemed. Trying it on was itself, a moment. She came to the front desk. “Tell me I don’t look good in this. Please. I already have a dress. What do you think?” To which we replied “Would the collective WOW echoed by every customer in the store be an answer?” She said it would. But she was still unsure, until the other customers told her not to leave the store without buying it. They implored and nearly begged. One lady almost yelled at her in a friendly, mother-lion kind of way.
So she did purchase the dress ($395) and wear it to the event. She even surprised her husband, who didn’t know of the purchase and fully expected her failsafe black dress to make an appearance for the evening. The end result was that she became the photographer’s muse for the evening and was in several pictures and appeared in the local Philadelphia newspaper!!
Having seen all of that and seen how she transformed the dress from a lovely piece of silk into a fashion moment reminds us why there are songs about wearing red dresses. As per Chris De Bergh’s famous love song:
I’ve never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight
I’ve never seen you shine so bright
I’ve never seen so many men ask you if you wanted to dance
They’re looking for a little romance, given half a chance
I have never seen that dress you’re wearing
Or the highlights in your head that catch your eyes I have been blind
The lady in red is dancing with me cheek to cheek
There’s nobody here, it’s just you and me, It’s where I wanna be
But I hardly know this beauty by my side
I’ll never for get, the way you look tonightI’ve never seen you looking so gorgeous as you did tonight
I’ve never seen you shine so bright you were amazing
I’ve never seen so many people want to be there by your side
And when you turned to me and smiled, It took my breath away
I have never had such a feeling
Such a feeling of complete and utter love, as I do tonightThe way you look tonight
I never will forget, the way you look tonight
The lady in red
The lady in red
The lady in red
My lady in red (I love you.)
BIS, resale, fashion, couture, Melinda Eng, shopping, New York City, New York City shopping