What Does She Do With All Those Dresses?

I very often get asked, and not always very nicely, what I do with all my dresses.  Some people ask out of curiosity as they are considering buying pretty dresses themselves and wondering if they'll ever really wear them.  To those people, I speak the honest truth: I wear them everywhere, for any reason, and all the time.  However, most people ask out of nosiness or jealousy.  "Where does she wear all of these dresses?  To balls?  Does she go to balls?"  It's so tacky and I'm tempted to answer the simple truth to people like that:  None of your business.  But, I usually don't.  Instead I explain that most of the time I keep them and wear them as often as possible.  Sometimes I sell them, and sometimes I donate them, but I am very reluctant to donate them just anywhere.

I once knew a very unethical, lazy woman who made it her "business" to scour thrift and charity shops to find high-end items that had been donated in the hopes of blessing someone less fortunate.  She bought them for a song and then turned around and sold them for a small fortune.  She had no shame about it and actually bragged about duping people, both the donor and the buyer, this way.  It was all so uncouth that it soured me on the idea of donating my high-end gowns to most charity shops, but recently a new kind of program has sprung up in my area that I am totally on-board with.

This program is run through local schools and offers a place for people to donate their dresses where they can be certain they will get into the hands of young girls in need.  They also store them so they're available throughout the year as occasions arise, as long as some crazy-eyed narcissistic drama teacher doesn't try to confiscate them to be torn up in the school's musical--eesh, don't ask about that one.  Since we've had so many snow days this year, I thought I would get a jump start on my spring cleaning and get these dresses over to the school in time for prom.  I looked through all my storage tubs, asked my girls if there was any chance they'd want to wear them to prom themselves, and if they said no, I put them in a large donation bag. 

All told, I donated a dozen dresses so far and I intend to donate more as soon as I finish up a little photo shoot I'm working on and wrap up my spring cleaning.  I know for a fact that three of my beautiful dresses found owners just in time for prom and it has brought me a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that those lovely dresses went to girls who would love them as much as or more than I did.

I know we always talk about Christmas as the season of giving, but generosity shouldn't be confined to just one month our of the year.  I love beautiful dresses and I love sharing them with kindred spirits too.  I keep my favorites and wear them at every possible occasion, even if the occasion is just dinner at a friend's house, or I pass them on to someone who will treasure them.  It's as simple as that.