dress shopping

saturday morning, i find myself in the garment district of los angeles with VK et all. it's blazing hot and i am initially overwhelmed by the sheer number of shops and dresses, taking in the wide assortment of dresses- long, tea length, short, skankyshort, slinky, lacy, sheer with cutouts (oh my!) and so on.


each shop was a madhouse of 15 year olds with mothers and aunties in tow and clearly on a mission to find the prefect gown for their quinceanera and 17 year olds with full entourage on standby to pass judgement and snatch up potential prom dresses.

it was a shopping experience like no other and i applaud the patience of VK's bridesmaids as they dutifully tried on dress after dress in cramped quarters and makeshift dressing rooms (i.e. all of us blocking view of one of the gals by holding up dresses in front of her).

trouble hit at store x. while there were many gaudy dresses, there were a fair share of nice dresses. a cute number hanging from the high racks caught my eye and i tried to get the attention of one of the sales women. when that failed, i spyed one of the poles used to retrieve out of reach merchandise. i motioned to grab the pole but the sales woman quickly beat me to it and threw a withering glare my way. i shrugged innocently and pointed to the dress of interest but only got her dismissal in reply. strike one.

we all went back to dress hunting and found several dresses to try on. while missE gamely tried on the dresses, i found an adorable dress and seeing the long line for the dressing room, slipped it over my head to gauge the fit. evidently that was strike two as the sales woman began screaming at me for trying something on outside a dressing room.

missE modelled the dresses which he had selected. VK loved one of them. when we made inquiries about the prices, we were gruffly told that they only had a couple left and they would not order any more. there was no attempt to offer further assistance or help us locate the dress. when VK attempted to find the style number to locate the dress, the sales woman snatched the dress back- adding that VK was not allowed to look at the dress anymore. one of the bridesmaids went to find the owner, who also managed an adjoining dress shop about the dress. he deferred to the associate. strike 3.

we were completely deflated by the saleswoman's nasty attitude and left the garment distict shortly thereafter. we refueled and cooled down at a korean run sushi joint downtown that was playing every single janet jackson video known to man on large flat screened tv's. while we did not get a dress in the end, at the very least, we have a much better idea of what type of bridesmaid dress the bride likes and what would be flattering on a range of body types. . . and knowing is half the battle, right?