Okay, I am *so* buying dresses online more often...

[frameofmind6]

See, I'm singing in my cousin's wedding in a few weeks, so of course I need a dress -- and although I have a few things that could work, I'd really prefer to have something new. Most of my dress clothes are skirt and shirt sets, meant for auditions and performances in front of program meeting and so forth. Besides, I have to give a recital in the spring, and I still haven't found anything that's quite right for that. I want it to be classy, but a little fancier than most of the stuff I have (much of which, I'm afraid, comes from Target and Kmart... *grin*). The thing is, finding dresses that actually fit and look good on me is nearly impossible. If they fit across the bust, they're too big in the waist, and if they fit at the waist, I can't zip them up all the way. Plus, anything with sort of a "designated" bust area (like a line intended to fall just beneath the bust, or a sweetheart neckline) will inevitably fall in the wrong place -- either too low to be decent, or too high to be fashionable. Plus, I can't wear anything that requires you to wear anything less than my normal bra, and I generally prefer it if at least my upper arms can be covered -- spaghetti straps look awful on me, and cap sleeves are always uncomfortable. Anyway, last week I was browsing Amazon for something completely different (don't even remember what), and I stumbled across their dress section. Amazing! Not surprisingly, they have a much wider and more varied selection than any department store, and you can search it by size, color, style, you name it. I found about a million and one things that could potentially work, but I finally narrowed it down to four of the most likely candidates and ordered them. Even then I was still skeptical -- yeah, sure, they seemed like they could work from the pictures and sizing charts, but I've been dress shopping with myself too many times not to know all the things that could still potentially go wrong. Well, today the first two arrived -- and to my delighted surprise, both fit better than any of the other dresses I've bought in the last year or so. Fantastic! This is so awesome. I can't wait to get the other two and see if they work as well. Who knows, I may end up keeping all four of them. I don't think my bank account would like that very much, but if they all actually work, it would totally be worth it...