I am somewhat in the market for a new maxi dress to wear to my nephew's graduation, which is two weeks from this Friday. I say "somewhat" because I have a closet full of perfectly nice dresses and skirts, and since I rarely get to see my sister's family, even wearing something I wear all the time would be something new to them (case in point: in 2022 when we went to Edisto Island, I brought along a maxi dress I'd gotten at Chico's outlet store at least 6-7 years previous, possibly even longer, and Sis raved about how cute it was--it is--and how nice I look in it--I do <g>).
So late this afternoon, I had a hair appointment and decided to swing by the deep discount store Gabe's beforehand as it's just down the road. Maxi dresses are IN right now (yay!) and I picked out five that I really liked and tried them on. Two were meh. Two were "hahahahah...NO". But one was GORGEOUS on me. It was navy with a delicate floral pattern in a gold metallic thread, dressy but not TOO dressy, comfortable, nice and light, fit me perfectly, etc. It was also only $12.
And...I didn't buy it.
Why? Because those metallic threads turned out to be not metallic threads but glitter. When I pulled the dress on over my head, a shower of glitter rained down all over the floor. I tried that dress on first; I tried it on again after trying on the other four dresses and more glitter broke free. The dressing room looked like the floor of a strip club. I whipped out my phone and googled "how do you keep glitter ON a dress?" and the answer was...you don't. The best you can do is take the dress outside and beat it like it's a steak needing tenderizing, then you spray about 12 coats of hairspray on it and maybe, just MAYBE, it won't entirely de-glitter. But you also might not be able to move in your now stiff garment.
*sigh* I'll probably check out a few more places, including the Chico's outlet store and maybe the Gabe's that's one town over from it. If I find something, that would be great, but if I don't, I have another outfit already in mind.
