Oh, This Old Thing?

[eye_of_a_cat]

I need(1) two new dresses for miscellaneous university-related events. I've bought one of them already, which is probably a waste of money even for a big shiny party thing(2) and at any rate cost more than I'd usually spend(3) but, hey, it's pretty. I'm still looking for Dress B.

So, here's my question, in re: Fifties-style strapless dresses like this one:
a) How the hell do they stay up?
b) Does the answer to a) still apply if you're dancing?

Since the mannequin in the picture presumably doesn't move very much(4), it's difficult to tell how those things work. And this is for a ceilidh, and ceilidh dancing is fast. I could always sew straps on it (or try to pass off duct tape as a very trendy accessory), but maybe there's some anti-gravity system at work there. People walk about in those dresses, don't they?

(1) For 'need' here, read 'am required to' for Dress A and 'am not required to, but this is a Big Fancy Event in a Big Fancy Place and I don't own anything that fancy and it'll just be wrong if the event and the setting and the boy on my arm are all looking prettier than me' for Dress B.

(2) Having discussed this with my dear friend J, who went to the kind of school where they throw actual balls with actual ballgowns every year, I am partly reassured on this. My dress probably cost about half a sleeve's worth of ballgown. And, yes, I got it cheaper because the stitching's coming away at the back, and it doesn't look quite as shiny nor as expensive nor as new as a ballgown, but AT LEAST MY DRESS NEVER TOOK PART IN A SOCIALLY EXCLUSIVE EDUCATION SYSTEM, SO THERE.

(3) Well, sort of. I'd usually spend nothing - I don't find myself at many occasions that warrant fancy clothes. The last time I bought a dress for a big event like this was when I was 17 and in my last year of school, and a bunch of us clubbed together to hire the function room above the pub down the road, which let's just say didn't involve ballgowns. My dress cost £13.99 from Mackays. And I still have it. And it still fits me.

(4) At least not until after dark when the shop's quiet.

Comments

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

For starters, you need a good bra. Unless you succumb to sewing straps on it (and if you can get something that'll work, right colour and such, that might not be a bad idea, since you don't want to flash the ceilidh), that means strapless, so it's even more important that it's a good fit and good bra. You can then use special tape to stick the bra to the inside of the dress, although it might leave marks on the bra (still haven't got round to getting them off mine). How good a fit is the dress? If it has a tendency to fall down already, sewing straps on looks like an even better idea.

So what sort of green is it, what's the fabric like? Tell!

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

This isn't the green one, but the Hypothetical Dress B I still haven't got around to buying yet. The green one has sleeves (down to the length people used to have for wearing with long gloves - upper-arms-ish), and is fitted down to the waist with a full skirt. It's got bows on the waist and on the sleeves (er, you'll have to trust me that that doesn't look hideous...)

Do strapless bras always do hideous things to one's shape, or does it depend on the fit? (They cost a bloody fortune, too. I really should've made more out of my M&S staff discount when I had one.)

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

This is when I make you quake with fear. I put M&S bras into the "cheap and nasty" category. OK, maybe they're not all the way there, but in a way they're worse because some of the bras look decent and they're cheap (£12), so you buy several of the same model in assorted colours and they last five minutes. Just Say No. Go and get yourself measured somewhere good (if Edinburgh, Jenners are notorious for trying to put people into a back size too small, ignoring squeaks of, "But I can't possibly be a 30E and that hurts and I CAN'T BREATHE!"; the personal shopper woman at Fraser is good, amongst others) and get their advice on which strapless bra will be good for you. They all tell you that a well-fitting strapless bra should be comfortable and shouldn't carve up your back into weird shapes, but in my experience that's only up to a point. That said, I'm a largish cup size and I seem to remember that you're a more normal size, so it should be less of a hassle for you; it was also a nightmare for me because I was wearing said bra with a dress that was cut low in the front, and finding a low-cut strapless bra in a 32DD is not easy.

Once you've discovered your definitely correct size, try on some different brands, and with any luck you'll find one (or even more than one!) that tends to fit. This may not be true across all brands, but I find that Panache bras always almost fit me, and they're lovely bras, especially since I prefer balconnette shapes (I've had some interesting arguments with elderly bra-fitters along the lines of, "Yes, that provides excellent support but I live in low-cut tops, it's useless. No, I mean low-cut. No, about half of the bra is going to show"), so I just order online these days as you can get £30-odd bras for a tenner. I do very well with Brastop and eBay, I'm getting my bras for between £10 and £20 and they're excellent quality. The woman at Frasers said you're meant to replace your bras every three months, which I flatly refuse to believe, but they're probably not meant to live longer than a year or so. There's also Figleaves, and oh look, they've got a sale on.

So if it's hypothetical, how can you know the shape already? Remind me exactly what Dress B needs to do, apart from be wearable at a ceilidh and fit you? At a pinch, you could borrow the dress I wore for my cousin's wedding last year, I think it would fit and suit you. I'm sure you've got other dresses, but just in case, here's a description. It's a smallish 12 (I'd have got the 10 but it was too tight over the bust, so it's fitted there on me and a shade loose elsewhere; it's the kind of dress where it doesn't matter), summer party dress rather than ballgown, spaghetti straps - er, that fit on me once we shortened them, but you're only 2" taller, indigo/dark purple ground with a design in teal, raspberry, red and off-white (sounds insane but works), floaty with a handkerchief hem and pretty panel-y bits that mean you don't have to hold your stomach in, and I have two scarves that go with (one in a sort of aqua chiffon which I personally beaded, one in a teal faux-pashmina), plus other accessories. The snag is that I wear it with a strapless bra (and with tape sticking the bra to the dress in case it gets any ideas, the picture below shows why), but if you have something with relatively thin black straps I'm sure you could get away with a strappy bra, and for ceilidhing it would probably be preferable.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

The day I can afford Jenners will be the day I dispatch my staff to buy my clothes for me anyway, so online seems like a much better bet. Thanks for those sites - that's much more affordable, and it looks like they have a good range (if a puzzling one - who the hell's a 28F? That must be awful to buy for).

The dress itself is, ideally, going to be on its way from eBay for a stupidly low price in the next 24 hours or so. If I get outbid on that one, though, I'm planning to find another like it in style - I've wanted one for ages, so if I'm going to buy a dress anyway it may as well be one of those. But thank you for the offer to borrow yours, which is indeed gorgeous and which I might well be chasing you up for nearer the time if I can't get anything on eBay!

As for specifications, it just has to be okay for a ceilidh (so not indecent but preferably swirly) and look Really, Really Damn Good on me. In an entirely non-shallow way. Obviously.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Link to the eBay one, please!

Jenners have a fairly standard range of bras, actually, including the cheaper end of the market (Wonderbra and such) as well as the pricier end, but since this would be a sizing trip, I'd advise against them.

Arghh, I'm still having clothing dilemmas for tomorrow! I've now looked up the weather, which is forecast to be 63 deg. F/17 deg C, but I can't remember how warm that is. I'm probably being really silly: just because I'm determined to wear That Dress some time doesn't mean that it's the right dress for tomorrow/

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Oh, and: the dress from Armstrongs is this (http://www.blogcontestsite.com/pup/moss_green.jpg) kind of green, and a shiny material that would quite like to be silk but isn't going to make an idiot out of itself by trying too hard. Quite heavy, too.

[moon-very-thin.livejournal.com]

Ah, I have much experience of 50s style gowns. Fiendish things to wear, but oh-so-pretty.

The secret to getting a dress like that to stay up is in making sure it fits well under the bust, where the ribbing is in that picture. It ought to be a snug fit so that that part of the dress isn't slipping when you move. That way, so long as the bust of the dress isn't too big for you, it won't need to be stapled and superglued into place, because the rest of the dress will be holding you.

Then, as elettaria says, have a good bra (general guideline is that it ought to cost more than the bloody dress ;) ) I also agree that if straps can be managed, it might be a good idea, considereing it's a ceilidh.

Hope you have fun.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Advice from the flatmate: "Nothing strapless at a ceilidh! Nothing! Are you out of your mind?"

Maybe persuade my mother to sew thin straps to it and get a decent strapless bra? It probably is going to end up costing more than the dress! Really, I think I should be able to claim this on university expenses (under 'Preservation Of Decency At Ceilidh'...)

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Isn't your mother hundreds of miles south? If need be, I volunteer my services for shepherding you around bra shops (well, it worked for catnip_junkie - if you heard how much her graduation ballgown cost, you might be feeling reassured about the cost of your Armstrongs dress), and having gone insane trying to find a dress and bra for the wedding last year I know most of the places by now. Since you're a relatively normal size, I may end up standing there and hissing as you actually find bras in the shops, instead of being told time and again that they're out of your size) and strap-sewing; there's Edinburgh Bargain Stores opposite me which might have useful stuff, failing that John Lewis is only a short hop away.

Sewing thin straps to the dress and a strapless bra is a good compromise, I don't think I'd venture further if there's vigorous dancing involved. If you go for a strappy bra too, on the one hand it won't do odd things to your back (with certain dresses that sort of thing doesn't show, though) and it won't start shimmying down and need hiking up throughout the evening, but on the other the straps will show and that might be annoying.

I'm now being tempted to finish off adapting that brown/orange/pink dress and wear it to the barbecue tomorrow, but it's far too dressy. I think. Plus the problem that it's moderately indecent: let's put it this way, when I modelled it to D the other week, he ended up staying the night and he hadn't planned to. Er, what do people wear to Liberal Jewish community annual barbecues? I know I went to the one last year, but I can't remember! Pictures can be retrieved if need be, it's the one I put up that post about a few posts down my LJ. It's probably at least half an hour's sewing. Tonight's plans involve some tidying of the living room and some work, I could probably get the sewing in there. It also depends on whether that backless bra thing I got from eBay (which is posing as the La Senza one and I suspect isn't because the front doesn't plunge as much), and which, incidentally, I bought because I'm not overly fond of strapless bras (this dress is so tight I can hopefully just sew the bra thingy into the front) actually fits properly. Not to mention tomorrow's weather. In some ways I suppose it's just a summer dress that's a little sexier than some of them; the plan was to wear it with a plain dark brown scarf, and I wear scarves to everything these days.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the parents are coming up for the little brother's graduation next week - probably not with Mum's sewing machine, but We'll See.

If you go for a strappy bra too, on the one hand it won't do odd things to your back (with certain dresses that sort of thing doesn't show, though) and it won't start shimmying down and need hiking up throughout the evening, but on the other the straps will show and that might be annoying.

Yep. J suggested one of those with see-through straps, which do look really obvious if you're wearing something strapless but maybe less so if you have thin straps there anyway - strapless bra and a lot of tape sounds like a good plan, though.

Er, what do people wear to Liberal Jewish community annual barbecues?

Well, if you don't know...

The brown-y dress is gorgeous - very summery, though, so here's hoping for good weather if you go with that one. I don't think it would count as too indecent, especially with a scarf. How are you adapting it?

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

The straps have been quite thoroughly altered, there used to be a weird macrame thing above the bust which has been taken off, and which is why they cross over in that unusual way. I haven't yet sewn the lacing behind the cut-out, and I am going to put a layer of flesh-coloured chiffon behind it. I also intend to sew one of those strange backless bra things in for added support and decency. You still get a fabulous view of my breasts, to be honest. On the warmth front, it's lined at least. I'll start on it tonight and see how I do, and if I get it done then I can always poke my nose out of the door tomorrow morning and decide on the weather, plus wait for D's reaction ("No! Put me down! I asked whether or not it's suitable to wear in public, I didn't ask you to take it off me!").