I have a favourite dress, I bought it in an Italian store in Al Whada mall in Abu Dhabi. I visited this dress every week until it went into the sale whereupon I pounced on it and purchased it immediately. It's silk, empire line and very flattering.
I don't know if it's just being in my thirties, but I find clothes shopping more and more difficult as I get older. In my twenties a trip to Grafton street meant agonising over every single shop where invariably I wanted EVERYTHING!! These days I wander into the high street stores and feel like there's a big secret that nobody's let me in on. I can't relate to fashion any more. It's all smock tops and ugly frocks. It seems to me that most of what is in the shops went out of the shops twenty years ago. Why anyone would want to revisit the fashion of the 80's is beyond me. Indeed, finding an outfit for my recent 80's themed party was easier than finding something nice to wear for a normal night out.
I've flirted with online clothes shopping, which is an excercise in faith and optimism. Boden and Joules being my favourite shops; all bright patterns and feminine styles, I love them both. But I have made some monumental mistakes with these too. A plum coloured shift dress looked adorable on the size 8, 7 stone model in the Boden catalogue, and for some reason I pictured myself looking not dissimilar. Of course when it arrived and I tried it on, I looked like my mother. Frumpy and dumpy and 90 Euros poorer! But when you DO get it right, it's wonderful to pull the perfect skirt from a tissue lined delivery box having spent no time in a changing room with four children squabbling around your ankles, whilst struggle into something which makes you look like a hooker (and why do changing rooms have such unflattering lighting??)
I've always preferred dresses and skirts to trousers; my mother was a very fashion conscious woman in her day, and I grew up playing in her giant wardrobe trying on her hundreds of matching shoes and handbags. A dress means an occasion in my book and nothing in this world feels better than slipping a brand new dress over your head while preparing for a night out.
And so, after a fruitless and futile trip to Bawadi mall last week, to find a fabulous dress for dinner out with DH, I took matters into my own hands, I was going to copy my favourite dress, and so off I ventured to the 'Golden Thread' fabric store by the Town Square. And my goodness it was exciting. Fabric shops and haberdasheries are not something you can find easily any more in Ireland, indeed dressmaking for the masses is a dying art, but here in the UAE they are everywhere. Emirati women, when in the privacy of their homes once the abaya has been cast aside, are very glamourous. Their clothing stores are filled with floor length, diamond encrusted blingtastic gowns. Not for them the comfy cardi from BHS or a pair of combats; they are so groomed and glam they put us Western women to shame.
Back to the Golden Thread...this store had dozens of bolts of silk, ribbons, beadings, sequins, edgings, just everything you could possibly want for that perfect dress. I ended up choosing an ivory silk and a dark red silk as I just simply couldn't decide what I wanted -- I would have two dresses! Next came the edgings, zips and thread and I left the store with directions to a tailor nearby.
Tiptoeing down the dimly lit, bleak and shabby staircase I began to wonder if I really needed these dresses. But since I was carrying 200 dirhams of fabric I figured 'nothing ventured..' and entered a corridor with several tailors shops on either side. Trying not to be intimidated by the stares and whispers, I spotted one shop at the end of the corridor that looked like a possibility. The hostile looking Pakistani man looked at the dress and fabrics with a grimace and told me they'd be ready in five days. No tape measures, no fittings, just a straight forward copy of the original - how was that going to work? Grateful to be out of there, I fled back up the stairs, wondering if his obvious dislike for me was the fact that I was asking him to make me two sleeveless dresses, 'perhaps it's a sin' I pondered.
And so, today, with great trepidation, I went to collect my prizes. Still hostile and unsmiling, the man ignored me for several minutes until another man sitting at a sewing machine around the corner beckoned to me. Edging my way around I was presented with my dresses rolled up in a plastic bag. Not quite like collecting your made to measure garment from Chanel, where I imagine they usher you into a beautiful loft on the Champs Elysees while proffering you champagne and truffles, only to present the finished item in tons of tissue paper and petals. But, it was still exciting. I pulled one of the dresses from the bag to discover that they had mixed the edgings up. For the ivory dress I had chosen a simple ivory edging and for the scarlet dress I had chosen a bright pink and orange beading. But no matter, it looked better this way round. Rushing home to try them on they both fitted perfectly. I will admit that there are a couple of flaws but it doesn't matter, I'm delighted with my two new dresses, which cost the equivalent of €28 each. Bargain of the year, surely (maybe I'll sell them on ebay for €100 each...).
I am now in the process of designing my perfect dress, along with several designs for my DD (darling daughter) and fancy myself as a bit of a fashion designer. Although I shall have to find a women's tailor for my own designs since I can't imagine my hostile tailor will be too keen to put a tape measure around my boobs. Or maybe it's just what he needs....might cheer him up.
I don't know if it's just being in my thirties, but I find clothes shopping more and more difficult as I get older. In my twenties a trip to Grafton street meant agonising over every single shop where invariably I wanted EVERYTHING!! These days I wander into the high street stores and feel like there's a big secret that nobody's let me in on. I can't relate to fashion any more. It's all smock tops and ugly frocks. It seems to me that most of what is in the shops went out of the shops twenty years ago. Why anyone would want to revisit the fashion of the 80's is beyond me. Indeed, finding an outfit for my recent 80's themed party was easier than finding something nice to wear for a normal night out.
I've flirted with online clothes shopping, which is an excercise in faith and optimism. Boden and Joules being my favourite shops; all bright patterns and feminine styles, I love them both. But I have made some monumental mistakes with these too. A plum coloured shift dress looked adorable on the size 8, 7 stone model in the Boden catalogue, and for some reason I pictured myself looking not dissimilar. Of course when it arrived and I tried it on, I looked like my mother. Frumpy and dumpy and 90 Euros poorer! But when you DO get it right, it's wonderful to pull the perfect skirt from a tissue lined delivery box having spent no time in a changing room with four children squabbling around your ankles, whilst struggle into something which makes you look like a hooker (and why do changing rooms have such unflattering lighting??)
I've always preferred dresses and skirts to trousers; my mother was a very fashion conscious woman in her day, and I grew up playing in her giant wardrobe trying on her hundreds of matching shoes and handbags. A dress means an occasion in my book and nothing in this world feels better than slipping a brand new dress over your head while preparing for a night out.
And so, after a fruitless and futile trip to Bawadi mall last week, to find a fabulous dress for dinner out with DH, I took matters into my own hands, I was going to copy my favourite dress, and so off I ventured to the 'Golden Thread' fabric store by the Town Square. And my goodness it was exciting. Fabric shops and haberdasheries are not something you can find easily any more in Ireland, indeed dressmaking for the masses is a dying art, but here in the UAE they are everywhere. Emirati women, when in the privacy of their homes once the abaya has been cast aside, are very glamourous. Their clothing stores are filled with floor length, diamond encrusted blingtastic gowns. Not for them the comfy cardi from BHS or a pair of combats; they are so groomed and glam they put us Western women to shame.
Back to the Golden Thread...this store had dozens of bolts of silk, ribbons, beadings, sequins, edgings, just everything you could possibly want for that perfect dress. I ended up choosing an ivory silk and a dark red silk as I just simply couldn't decide what I wanted -- I would have two dresses! Next came the edgings, zips and thread and I left the store with directions to a tailor nearby.
Tiptoeing down the dimly lit, bleak and shabby staircase I began to wonder if I really needed these dresses. But since I was carrying 200 dirhams of fabric I figured 'nothing ventured..' and entered a corridor with several tailors shops on either side. Trying not to be intimidated by the stares and whispers, I spotted one shop at the end of the corridor that looked like a possibility. The hostile looking Pakistani man looked at the dress and fabrics with a grimace and told me they'd be ready in five days. No tape measures, no fittings, just a straight forward copy of the original - how was that going to work? Grateful to be out of there, I fled back up the stairs, wondering if his obvious dislike for me was the fact that I was asking him to make me two sleeveless dresses, 'perhaps it's a sin' I pondered.
And so, today, with great trepidation, I went to collect my prizes. Still hostile and unsmiling, the man ignored me for several minutes until another man sitting at a sewing machine around the corner beckoned to me. Edging my way around I was presented with my dresses rolled up in a plastic bag. Not quite like collecting your made to measure garment from Chanel, where I imagine they usher you into a beautiful loft on the Champs Elysees while proffering you champagne and truffles, only to present the finished item in tons of tissue paper and petals. But, it was still exciting. I pulled one of the dresses from the bag to discover that they had mixed the edgings up. For the ivory dress I had chosen a simple ivory edging and for the scarlet dress I had chosen a bright pink and orange beading. But no matter, it looked better this way round. Rushing home to try them on they both fitted perfectly. I will admit that there are a couple of flaws but it doesn't matter, I'm delighted with my two new dresses, which cost the equivalent of €28 each. Bargain of the year, surely (maybe I'll sell them on ebay for €100 each...).
I am now in the process of designing my perfect dress, along with several designs for my DD (darling daughter) and fancy myself as a bit of a fashion designer. Although I shall have to find a women's tailor for my own designs since I can't imagine my hostile tailor will be too keen to put a tape measure around my boobs. Or maybe it's just what he needs....might cheer him up.
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