It's a two-post day! I'd been steeling myself for my Wool& reward dress to arrive tomorrow. But lo, when I went out to the porch to retrieve the mail, there she was!
Usually I try not to change clothes during the day. Mostly I resist that tendency because it's an anxiety habit, and linked to one of my recurring anxiety nightmares, in which I have somewhere to be, like right now if not yesterday, and I'm stuck in my closet (or a closet, since my real closet really isn't big enough to admit both my clothes and me), frantically trying on and taking off outfits, while nothing is right. Time passes; the not-right clothes mount up; whatever part of my life is supposed to be happening goes on without me. So I really try, when I get dressed in the morning, to get dressed in something I won't want to take off an hour later.
Today, folks, an exception.
For my reward dress, I chose a Sierra tank dress. I'd been attracted to the tank style from the beginning, but for my challenge dress wound up choosing a Camellia. I'm not sorry I did, either –– after wearing this dress for a hundred days straight, I still love the style, the color, and the feel of the fabric. This was a fantastic, versatile summer dress. I have found it a little harder to wear as the season has changed –– both the drape and the color seem persistently a little summery to me, even with fall layers. I do still wear it and love it. I think the lighter fabric made it a consistently good hot-weather choice, and it does dress up or down with great ease.
But I'd always had my eye on a Sierra. Of course, I'd had my eye on several styles –– the Rowena, for example, is lovely and looks like a great cooler-weather dress. But then I found some comparable secondhand dresses in bamboo, which filled my need for long-sleeved swing dresses, so that took care of that. I'd also had my eye on the Fiona, because the fit-and flare shape is appealing. Right now, however, that dress comes only in black and slate blue. I don't wear black, and I have so many blue dresses that it was hard to consider buying another one –- or to put it another way, hard to consider blowing my reward credit on yet another blue dress. I love blue, and it's my best color, but that still didn't feel like the best use of that credit. If they brought back the now-discontinued lavender, I'd really consider splashing out for a Fiona at some point, because that color is a dream, but until then . . . eh.
Until extremely recently, the regular-length Sierras have been sold out in the two colors that would appeal to me: charcoal gray and washed navy. I wound up ordering a small long Sierra in charcoal gray. Given my measurements, this seemed like a reasonable gamble, but I was nervous. Could I really wear a small? Also, would it really not be so long that it looked dowdy? I have to confess that the fit on some of the models gave me pause (and not because of their body shape, or anything about them –- it really is where the dress hits on them). BUT I really wanted a charcoal-gray dress, because it's a color I wear well, and I didn't have a dress in that color. I wanted the heavier knit fabric –– if I have one complaint about my Camellia, it is that the fabric feels a little fragile. Granted, it held up pretty well to a hundred days of hard wear, so that's more a perception than an actual complaint (though I did just finish remending a hole it sustained in the last ten days of the challenge, when I caught it on the back fence . . . something a little tougher wouldn't have torn, I don't think). AND I finally decided that I wanted another tank-style dress, even with winter coming, because I hoped to wear it year-round.
And wow.
I like the fit. It's longer than my Camellia (which is a medium regular length), but not by that much. It hits right at my knee, as in showing most of my knee. This is actually a very nice length: still short enough to be kind of sporty and flirty, but a hair more coverage than my other swing dresses provide. The small gives me just enough swing without being too much fabric –- I think a medium would have been like a tent. My medium Camellia fit fine, because I think those dresses are cut a little slimmer, but it tended to stretch with wear, and I was gambling on the Sierra's doing the same. I'm particularly happy with the fit of the armholes, which again provide a little more coverage than Camellia's.
The fit seems fine from the rear. It's not huge over my hips, but still has plenty of give.
Charcoal gray is a really good neutral for me. It works well with pink-toned skin and a medium level of contrast. It's neither too light, to wash me out, nor too harsh, as black would be. It's a color I can wear and feel really in balance.
The fabric is wonderful. It is, as people say, much more like sweatshirt material, perfect for a gloomy, chilly, rainy day like today –- but I think I could wear it into the summer, too.
Anyway, goodbye, my son's pajama pants. Not that I don't like you, but I don't like you this much. In a break from what I normally try to do, I've changed my entire outfit:
Teal cashmere sweater bought off a B/S/T group for very cheap, because it had a hole, which I have mended. Mustard-yellow snag tights, which I bought with a gray dress in mind. Kept on my thrifted Birk Madeiras.
I envision wearing this dress a LOT. Already thinking what else to wear with it. I anticipate a Shop My Closet Sunday outing for it in the very near future.
And now I have work to do, but this has made my day.