Dress Boutique: Back By Popular Demand

I was uploading my pictures from Friday night (and last month’s dress boutique pictures) before my home computer shit the bed.  Have no idea what’s wrong with it but I think it’s dead for good.  However, Issued Puppet, today is your lucky day.  Per your request, let me take you back to the dress boutique.  (Last month’s display, as well as this months!)

Last Month: Dress Boutique – Case of the Missing Dummy

Whoa!  A mannequin went missing from the dress boutique window.  When I first spotted this, I thought it was temporarily taken inside to be outfitted, but 6 days later it was still missing.  I doubt if they were having that much trouble finding a third black dress so I have come to the conclustion that foul play must have been involved.

But who would want it?  If it had a head and a face, well then I might be able to construct a scenario of a lonely soul — besotted by the starry eyes in a beautiful oval face and bewitched by the graceful posture — fantasizing about dancing off with the vision of lovliness that stands ready and faithfully waiting in the boutique window.  But there are no eyes to gaze up adoringly, no head to lean in and offer a smooth cheek, no arms to delicately rest in waltz position.

Are creamy shoulders and a trim little waist enough to sustain a fantasy?  I guess if Fred Astaire could dance with a coat tree and make it look like he enjoyed it so much, then a thief with romantic longings could easily make a nice evening out of it with the missing mannequin.  Perhaps that is all the comfort he has.

Those of us who have the luxury of real arms to hold us should not judge!

This Month: Dress Boutique: Bunny Fur!

The prodigal mannequin has returned and the dress boutique celebrates by wrapping it in the primo outfit of this week’s display. 

Who among us does not like a good pink prom dress?  But how can we enhance that Sweet Sixteen feeling when one is already wearing a tulle overlay and glittery spangles?  The answer is obvious: bunny fur – hot pink bunny fur!  While the appealing details of the other two dresses are hard to ignore – the lovely sideways ruffles on the pale pink in the center or the sassily embroidered bodice of the plus-sized number (No prom girl left behind!), it is really all about that bunny fur stole, isn’t it? 

Last month, a demure little classic white bunny fur stole with a pom-pom of fur instead of a button holding it together appeared on a hanger in the other, less interesting window of the shop.  You’ve seen it a hundred times, if not a real live prom girl, then draped around a sitcom daughter’s shoulders.  Think Mary Stone or Betty Anderson and whoever was David Nelson’s date for the big dance.  (Ricky’s girlfriend would so not have worn one.)  It just hung there, sort of crooked, as if the owner decided to run it up the shop window and see who salutes.  My guess is that it generated a lot of comment, but today’s modern ball gown shopper was not willing to invest in unaltered vintagewear.

The clever dressmaker at the boutique whipped out the shears and the hot pink dye and voila! who could resist it now?  Observe its girly new sash closure and the saucy tilt of its drape off the shoulder.  That is a clear message to the prom goers that this is not your grandma’s bunny fur, but rather the birth of a daring and modern trend.  There are no hot pink bunnies in nature (*gasp* I know, can you believe it?!?!), so the color throws off the PETA people long enough for you to make an escape and blend in with other neon colored fur wearers (Little Kim maybe?).  Note how the drama of the soft fur of the stole and the cool mermaid scales of the dresses bodice play off of each other.  It’s brilliant, don’t you think?

BONUS FEATURE:  Honorable mention to the pale pink number in the center.  It was a tough call this month to decide on the focus for the commentary.  Ruffles and embroidery can only carry you so far, but you have to admire a skirt whose inspiration comes right off the bakery display shelf in the form of a sfogliatelle.   Yummy!