Petite Studio NYC dress (c/o)
Rouje sandals (similar)
Mango bag
Celine sunglasses
Aurate NY bracelet (c/o)
Stella & Dot ring
Mejuri earrings (similar)
Location: Saint-Boniface Cathedral – Winnipeg, Manitoba
When I said I’ve been looking back lately, I wasn’t joking. Last weekend, I found a journal I kept in eighth grade, which I started in 1998. At the end of it, which I came to just at the end of the next year, as we were about to enter the 2000s, I made a list of my favourites; a top ten for the new millennium. I wasn’t a sophisticated fourteen-year-old. My list wasn’t thoughtful or well-planned. I made it just so I had an excuse to fill up that old journal. The turn of the century didn’t excite me particularly, but a new notebook always did. I received a lovely one for Christmas that year and its virgin pages were calling me; writing the list meant I could scribble on them sooner. And two things I still truly love made it: teddy bears, and pants.
PANTS! That’s how it’s written, in my journal, at number five on the roster. Clearly, I was never a dress girl, even though I’ve gone through phases in my life when I’ve worn almost nothing else. For me, a dress will never be as comfortable as a good pair of pants. But when I was younger, I loved dresses for what I thought they symbolised – a fabulous life in which I had both a reason, and the inclination, to dress up every day. I can, and have, write an ode to a beautiful dress. But unless that dress feels like pyjamas when I’m wearing it, there’s an excellent chance it will languish in my closet. I might pull it out for a special occasion… or I might not. When I’m getting dressed, my instinct is always to reach for jeans or trousers.
It’s a shame, really. My closet is still full of beautiful dresses, including this one. I wore it when it first arrived, but now I can’t seem to find another reason to pull it out. There’s absolutely no reason for me to even entertain the idea of thinking about putting on a dress in my daily life. Even if there were, I’m not sure I would.
Case in point: when I went on my first business trip since February 2020 earlier this year, I contemplated my office-wear options reflectively while I packed. After spending two years of my career in loungewear, I wanted to feel comfortable at the meetings I was slated to attend, but still look the part. There was dust on the shoulders of the blazer I used to wear to visit clients. I love a good blazer, but that one isn’t it. So I left it behind in favour of a blouse, which I paired with my trusty trousers. They were ready to pack, already washed and pressed, because I’ve worn them a dozen times outside of work in the past two years, at least.
The fact is, I know what I like. And while I’ll always appreciate a beautiful dress, the reality is, when it comes to choosing an outfit in the morning, I’ll never reach for one. Now, just like when I was fourteen, pants remain among my favourite inventions.
