Dress Dreams

Wilfred dress (similar)
Dune London mules
Linjer ring (c/o) (similar)
Mejuri earrings (similar)
Location: Le Marais – Paris, France

Paris, October 10, 2021

Dear friends,

I had big plans for this dress. I don’t mind admitting it, now that you’re seeing it for the first time almost a year after I bought it. It was the end of 2020. Post-holiday sales raged. The year that was ending was the worst one of our collective existence but 2021, we were sure, would be better. And that was worth celebrating.

So I bought a dress. An impractical one, of course, totally unsuitable for the depths of a Manitoba winter. But 2020 didn’t end quite the way I planned – I spent most of the holidays binge-watching Bridgerton with popcorn and red wine while Ian worked. And the year that followed proved no better. The lockdown we were in when this dress arrived lasted almost three more months. And after a six week reprieve, we went into another one. The sense of hope I felt at the close of 2020 quickly faded to disappointment, a sentiment that pervaded the better part of 2021 for me.

Which is to say that I never did wear the dress. While it was a sale find, it was still special. Celebratory. And I didn’t feel much like celebrating.

…that is, until we finally booked tickets to Paris. And six weeks later, actually got to board the plane.

And so, as I wear this dress for l’heure de l’apero in our temporary home in the city of light, I find myself finally feeling in the mood to celebrate something. Not that life has gone back to normal, as I so badly hoped it would in the early months of the year. But that sometimes, we still get to live and remember what a joy our normal, mundane lives were like, before the pandemic. Even if it doesn’t last. Even if, although I hesitate to even suggest it, it can never last again.

I feel very different, as 2021 comes to an end, than I did when we closed out 2020. I’m less confident that the events of these past two years will soon be just a distant memory. But I’m also more grateful for the brief moments of normalcy that unexpectedly come our way; moments when the constant barrage of headlines temporarily fade away and we can simply live. I hope we’ll all get more of those in 2022. And more beautiful dresses to live them in, of course.

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