Elegant Inspiration
By Lana Wolfe
Sneakers on foot, suits neatly pressed, hair barely combed and makeup not yet applied; a great portion of our females fight through commuter pathways to get to their jobs every day, five days a week. There was a time when women wouldn’t go out of the house without full makeup. You might see them in grocery stores with curlers in their hair with elegant scarves adorning the curlers, but never would you find them without makeup. There was an air of the feminine everywhere there were women. Today women work every bit as hard as do their male counterparts and rarely do they take time to revel in the fact that being a woman is wonderful; its splendid; and its appreciated by those who notice.
Anymore, once we exit our prom stage and graduate beyond our wedding nights, the call to elegance gets further down our list. Few attend the opera anymore and even those who do are going far more casually than they once had in the previous decades. When I worked for Farouk Systems, an ammonia free hair coloring company, I dressed in style. I was called upon to represent our field in high fashion and good taste. We were celebrated a few times a year in the most splendid way and were required to dress in formal evening attire. The gentlemen were magnificent to behold and the grace of our women was noticeably majestic. Ahh, those were the days.
I get it. Our fast paced world of multi tasking efforts requires a more functional mode of dressing and we work so hard that most of us rarely have the time or energy to go anyplace that requires us to get decked out. I had stored my formal gowns long ago when I took leave of Farouk Systems to write my first book. Never had I expected to get called upon to attend another formal gig. I thought surely my favorite dress, one I got years ago from Helen Lyells, and all 5 of the others I possessed, would have to be passed down to a daughter in law. I stored them safely in a rental place with salon supplies I need only seasonally. They now are hidden from view at the very back of the storage.
<o:p> </o:p>
It just so happened that my girlfriend from the mountains was asked by her cousin to come sell T-shirts he had made for his class of 64 high school reunion and she chose me to assist her. The catch? We had to dress formally. I panicked as this was a last minute gig and I remembered exactly where I had put my formal gowns. The thought of digging them out and having them cleaned at the dry cleaners brought me down. I thought, I could go buy one but immediately felt guilty. My work schedule was tight and the locker was closed by the time I got off work so the day before our event, I headed up to the Gateway Plaza. In less than ten minutes I found the perfect gown at 80 percent off. I paid a paltry twenty bucks for it. I dashed back to the salon in time for my next client with my treasure. Everyone thought it was beautiful and wanted to see me wear it. I said, “Tomorrow.” I didn’t have the time to model it.
The next day came, the day of our event, and Jenny called me to tell me her car had broken down and she still needed to get a dress. I dashed back up to Ross and found another gown which was marked down to twenty-two bucks. What luck! I bought those and some hose. I got ready and as I watched myself transform from an average looking working woman into a beautiful woman, my eyes watered. I couldn’t remember the last time I ever looked so stunning. I felt utterly and completely feminine. My mind wandered to Jenny hoping she would arrive on time so we could replace her dress if she didn’t like it. I had chosen a pink for her. I’d never seen her in pink but when I saw the cut of the dress, the way the fabric caressed and moved, I thought, “She will be spectacular in this.”
Much to my disappointment, Jenny arrived two hours late! She was disheveled and her hair looked terrible. I’ve got no words to describe my dearest friend. I ordered her to the shampoo bowl, dressed in formal attire mind you. I shampooed her twice with a colorizing shampoo and a companion conditioner. Her hair was so dried out with grays jutting out everywhere. From there I blew her dry and coiffed her quickly. I tossed my makeup bag at her and she began her makeup process. We joked and I admired her transformation. As she began to warm up to the idea that we were going someplace dressed up beyond what we are used to, I began to relax. We laughed and were like little girls with butterflies in our tummy. I brought out the dress and she was awestruck. She put it on and it was my turn to be shocked. I turned her to the mirror. The salon was hushed as everyone had departed. The sound of her breath at the site of her own beauty brought tears to both our eyes. It had been such a long time since our truly feminine side had been viewed. I told her, “This dress is my twenty-two dollar gift to you.” I said now that I’ve proved dressing with style doesn’t have to cost a lot, we should make sure that we do something like this no less than three times yearly.
“But Lana, we don’t have anywhere to go that requires we do this.”
“Nonsense, Jen. I want you to remember this empowering feeling you have at this very moment.”
She looked at me with her dazzling blue eyes as though she were expecting me to hit her with my fairy god mother wand.
“We will find somewhere to go. Besides,” I said, “since when do we have to have an excuse to dress our best? I’d go to a Giant’s game like this if I wantedto feel like I do at this moment.” She laughed of course because she knows me so well and she knows I’d do something like that.
We discovered that dressing beautifully can bring a real elegance to our being, an elegance I now find myself thirsting for. I’m telling you ladies; please find time to do something, anything that allows you to look your best. The ritual was precious in itself but the reward was all the attention we grabbed selling her cousins T-shirts. Everyone and I mean all of them were complimentary. They too were smashing. This one simple reunion transported me into the movies back in the 40s. Such glamour I’ve not seen in a long long time. I was inspired by the elegance that stared me down in the mirror and I’ll remember to make time for myself like this again—soon.
Celebrate in elegance as often as possible; come to appreciate yourself for the transition you are able to make from work into the world of glamour. You are worth it. Go all out. Have fun!
