Wisdom on Dressing from My Mom

I'm getting my blog inspirations from others these days, it seems...

Jen, over at Here We Go Again, was talking about being over-dressed at a recent holiday party due to her husband's attire recon fail. Made me think of a good story...

I've never really been worried about being overdressed. Really. Well, not since it happened in about 8th grade, which as you know is a hugely bad time to have any social snafu. My faux-pas wasn't so bad, but my Mom shared a cool story as a result. I'm guessing it changed a lot about my life, beacuse I listened...

Mom said that she wasn't very popular, and was pleasantly surprised when she was invited to a birthday party for one of the really popular girls in her class. She was excited about it, and asked a few people from the popular crowd what the attire was. They told her it was a coming-out party. So, my Mom would need a true formal-ish cocktail dress.

Now, my Mom lived on a farm, and her family was on the shallow end of the money pool. She didn't own any dresses that would work for the party. However, her Mom wasn't going to let her go under dressed to the event of the year. I've forgotten if they bought or made the dress, but she went in a very nice cocktail dress, and was looking very sharp indeed.

I can imagine my Mom was on cloud 9 and was strutting a bit, she was a very pretty girl even though she thinks she was too thin. :)

I'm sure you can imagine then, that she was mortified though when she arrived and found that all the other girls were dressed in "Sunday Best". They had lied to her. Those mean girls had purposefully told her to wear the wrong thing.

My Mom stayed at the party (not sure she had a choice, she was probably dropped off by her parents) and figured out a key part of life... She refused to show that she was hurt by their misdirection. She just acted like she enjoyed herself, like nothing was amiss.

You know what happened? They guys all thought she looked marvelous, and paid attention to her! She was suddenly more popular, and was getting interest she hadn't before!

Mom says that it taught her to NEVER apologize for being overdressed. An apology suggests you have something to be sorry for. Instead, just go with it, and show that you have confidence, know that you look damn good. Why should you appologize for looking Damn Good?

Mom's theory, as she taught it to me, is that everyone else is only worried about themselves and what people are thinking aobut them anyway. So, if you don't show that you are embarrassed, you will likely just make the other people more self-conscious. It is likely they won't be talking bad about you because they are preoccupied with themselves! :) Nice, huh?

So, I learned early how to enter a room with confidence. I never worry about my attire or what people are thinking about me. I KNOW they aren't thinking about me. And you know what? I've had more than one close friend comment on on this "ability" of mine. They ask me how it is that I enter a packed room with an air of "I'm here now, we can get the party started!". ;)

Gotta love Momma's advice...