fox | sigh.

Shall I tell you what is tragic (on the scale of "tragedy" that involves shopping)?

This dress is awfully cute. It is so cute that when I saw it at Loft,

sanj and I saw that and agreed that you should try that on." And I did try it on that day, in a size too big and regular rather than petite. It was in fact cute, but predictably, too big and too long. Today, I tried in on in the correct size and petite. It continues to be cute -- but I am no longer planning to watch the sale rack for it, because what you can't see in that picture is that it has pockets.

Pockets.

Granted, they're on-seam, so they're quite well hidden. But even if you never put anything in them, not even your hands, the minute you move they gap just a bit and become visible. For god's sake.

Ah well. Maybe if I paid $20 for it instead of $70, I could have someone sew up the pockets and make the dress acceptable.

Meanwhile:

This dress is lethally cute. It's a bit iffy on the hanger, but it turns out that the color is, after all, Fox-compliant, and it fits quite nicely! ... in the chest. Unfortunately, it is quite a bit too tight through the hips.

That, my friends, does not tend to happen with the Loft stuff for me. Or in fact any stuff. Normally, it fits in the waist and hips and is too snug in the chest. I'm bigger on top. This one, if I went up a size so it fit in the hips, it would gape very unattractively in the chest and shoulders. This is a dress made for non-curvy people. Tragic, because in the five minutes I was acquainted with this dress, I came to love it a great deal.

I also found a charming dress at Banana Republic that made me heartily wish someone were getting married so I'd have an excuse to buy it (sadly, I can't find it on the website). That's how cute it is. And, a dress that I liked very much at Limited is now on sale!, and they didn't have it in my size. Their website is not helpful at all, so I also can't show that one.

Alas.

I did, however, find

ellen_fremedon-compliant stuff at (of all places) New York & Company. Y/N?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Y! It's very cute! Fun and summer-y, and I think it would look great with a variety of accessories, or even none at all.

Too bad that second dress didn't fit because it seriously rocks. Any chance you could buy the size that was too big on top and have it altered?

I'll have to consult with my committee on that one.

sanj?

Now, I would consider the pockets a feature and not a bug, but I will take your word for the gapping.

And that paisley dress might actually be me-compliant, but I would have to try it on-- the pattern is obscuring the relation between waist seam, bust darts, and armscyes, and all three would have to hit me in the right place. But if it fit well, it could be darned cute.

Also, I am in no way angling for opportunities to use the word 'armscye.' Nope. Uh-uh.

Dresses, nor skirts, should not have pockets.

Write that out ~~twenty~~ six hundred times before you go home, young lady.

The Ellen dress, I was less fussed with the bodice and more focused on (a) the shoulders -- look, sleeveless! This is broad-shoulder-friendly! -- and (b) the waist, which, with all those gathers, makes Prosthetic Hips (and therefore Ass).

You may use the word "armscye" as much as you like, if you can convince me there is a difference between it and "armhole".

I disagree, and will continue to disagree. Many of my favorite skirts have pockets, and look perfectly good.

And the shoulders and waist of the Ellen dress are both quite good, but it's the bodice that will make or break the fit.

I disagree, and Erin of A Dress a Day (and formerly of the Oxford American Dictionary!) also heartily disagreees! I loooooove dresses and especially skirts with pockets--I don't need big ones, and unlike Erin I'm not necessarily a fan of *obvious* ones, but to hold a license and cash, or a chapstick? So key.

I refer you to the dresses in my comment to

neotoma below (http://darthfox.livejournal.com/868497.html?thread=2505105#t2505105).

No excuse. None. If I can't carry a purse or even a wristlet, I can keep my driver's license and my credit card in my bra. (This, interestingly, does not ruin the line of the outfit.)

Oh, I totally agree on the ones you linked to. Useless. And I can see your point on the gappiness (theoretically) of the one above, though I don't usually ahve that problem with ones in the seam. And ballgowns do not really need pockets. However, I have a lot of work-appropriate dresses where having a pocket for my boarding pass and ID is SUPER handy.

Not to mention that for those of us small of bosom, having credit card or ID in bra is less of an option. Money is possible, but a card is too big to be hidden smoothly, even with a thickly padded bra like I wear.

Oh, that IS tragic, because that dress loves you and wants to be your friend. Personally, I think you get it on markdown and get the pockets taken out; that's a simple fix.

And the pink one! So cute!

I am intrigued by the paisley sundress. I think it is worth hanging on an Ellen to see what it does.

If you think she can handle Tysons on a Sunday, we should all three of us go and have Investigations while we're scouting out the LB clearance for you.

Frankly, after the week I will have continued to have had at work, I doubt I will be able to handle Tysons this coming Sunday.

(a) Pockets are permissible in [quite/very] casual non-trouser items. In things aiming for dressy and/or sleek, they are abomination. (The "and/or" is there because pockets Do Not Belong on, for example, swoopy-skirted ball gowns such as the starlets wear to the Oscars. And yet.)

(b) Another option is to send your credit card along with

sanj and have her bring back a [couple of] candidate[s], which can be returned if they're no good. I swear this is a relatively frequent practice. It's only shady-and-wrong if you remove the tags and wear the thing and then try to return it.

The regular Ann Taylor, not Loft, has some terrific dresses right now, and the prices aren't completely insane. I picked up a little black dress that turned out to be on clearance for $19.88--it didn't have a tag, so I didn't know; I would have paid a lot more--and there were two others I was seriously tempted by but resisted. They weren't on sale, alas, but I think they were in the $130-140 range.

I don't really need any dress at all just now, is the thing. So my price point is about thirty bucks. :-)

Oooh, that third dress is intriguing to another Ellen as well! *g*

New York & Company (http://www.nyandcompany.com), in case you're not familiar with them. Quite a lot of synthetics, but well-made enough and fairly true to size.

Ooh, thanks! I think I'll try and find one locally and try things on. I have weddings coming up that I need to be cute for! *has excuse* :D

What's wrong with pockets on a dress? More women's clothes should be made with pockets.

[weeps]

No, okay, seriously. In this case, they completely* spoil the line of the thing.

*or, almost completely. See above re: on-seam, and there's no flap or other decoration, so they could be tacked down and rendered harmless. Not like this:

or, god help us, this:

If that last one came in my size, I'd be all over it. I *love* stuff like that.

All clothing should have pockets. *nods*

sigh.

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