Charleen Willoughby
hunter green velvet dress
"A hunter green velvet dress I made myself for my senior prom. It was beautiful. I was so proud. My boyfriend drove a Toyota with no air-conditioner. It was June in Florida—hot and humid. The fancy restaurant where we had reservations was 40 minutes away. He opened my door and I got out and he stopped me, staring at the back of my dress. “What happened to your dress?,” he stammered. I looked behind me and I was mortified by what I saw. There, imprinted in the velvet, was the vinyl seat pattern from the car ride. You see, heat, pressure and moisture irrevocably flattens the velvet. The backs of my thighs AND my butt cheeks were perfectly imprinted in shiny splendor on the back of my dress. After dinner, I knelt on the car seat during the ride back to the dance, but it was already too late. I spent the entire evening dancing in the corner of the gym, trying to hide my back."
Judy Radcliff
silk dragonfly dress
"In May of 2005, my husband Cliff and I were both nominated for awards at the Omaha Community Playhouse Awards ceremony. I had recently lost weight and had NOTHING that fit that was remotely appropriate. I went shopping in my sister Mary’s closet with Cliff in tow. When I tried on this breathtakingly beautiful silk dragonfly dress, Cliff’s eyes lit up. Decision made. I rarely feel attractive, but that night I felt beautiful, especially so in the reflection of my husband’s eyes. A year later, my husband lost his life to cancer. Whenever I feel particularly average, I remember this evening, this dress and my husband’s love."
Sonia Keffer
bubble skirt party dress
New Year’s has long been my favorite holiday. When I was in college my friends and I decided to go out to celebrate. I talked my mother into making me a fancy party dress for one occasion. We shopped for the pattern and fabric together. I chose a deep green velvet for the bodice and a gorgeous dark red and green poppy covered print for the skirt. It was a satin that was a bubble skirt—it poofed out from my body. I topped it with rhinestone jewelry, another favorite. We went out for dinner and a party, it was wonderful. I felt elegant and beautiful.
Teri Fender
black and white saddle shoes
For as long as I can remember from my earliest days of
childhood, I had always wanted a pair of black and white saddle shoes. I
couldn’t say why then and still don’t really know now—I guess I’ve always just
been drawn to the two-toned look of them.
No matter how much I begged, plead or asked, my mother
flat-out refused to let me have a pair. Her reasoning? She had had to wear them
every day as a young girl, both because of her Catholic schooling and because
it was the fifties, and she could simply not, would simply not bear to put her
own daughter into what she saw as a punishment.
So, when I became an adult, I, of course, bought my first pair
of saddle shoes. They were easy to find, as swing dancing and jitterbugging had
just come back into style. I loved them. I wore them until they fell apart and
immediately replaced them—a cycle that continues to this day.
And now? Both my mother and I have pairs of black and white
spectator flats in our closets. Guess you could say the love of two-tone is in
my blood.
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