How Much Is That Dress In The Window – Revisited

Let’s say that the dress code at your holiday barbeque required you to wear a ballgown.  What to do?  The dress boutique has just the sort of formalwear that you need for such an occasion.

Perhaps you are a finalist in the Miss American Firecracker pageant or riding on a League of Women Voters float in the county parade and need something with a little patriotic pizzazz.  Here it is:

I wonder if the center dress is a real ballgown for sale or if it is just an inspired bit of holiday window dressing?  The bodice on the center dress is covered with individual sequins and the skirt is full and layered with a fine tulle netting.  Not cheap, so I can’t imagine who would throw this together as a joke, but yet — who is going to buy this, really?

This patriotic window display may seem all Mom and Apple Pie innocence at first glance, but once again the dress boutique has managed to send a hidden message to the naive ball gown shopper.  And that message is temptation.

Is it not enough that the gown just screams "slink" with its fancy beadwork and hippy hippy luciousness?  Note the delicious slither of beading making its way up the front of the dress.  And if you haven’t gotten the message yet, observe the shoulder strap with its forked and fangy flourish making its way over the nakedness shoulder.  Talk about temptation — you don’t even need the apple with this one.

 And the blue dress over on the other side?  Looking so simple, so striking, so sheer and see-through.  Can you see the wooden base of the mannequin through the fabric?  Take my word for it — it’s just that sheer all the way up.  No lining or pirate patches for modesty here — this is for the lady who likes to make an unforgettable impression.  Hand beading is very heavy so maybe the weight of this thing lulls ladies into thinking that they are sufficiently covered up.

Sex sells — does anyone doubt it?  The red and blue dresses will soon be making a big splash at any Independance Day party, but I fear that in the course of human events, it becomes self-evident that the one in the middle is destined for the $99.00 sale rack as soon as it leaves the window display.