This dress used to be mine. Then it wasn't. And now it is again! Yep, this is another tale of a dress worn years ago when I was a size small then sold when it no longer fit. If you missed my earlier blog post about the importance of body positivity and how buying a dress in a larger size MEANS NOTHING WHATSOEVER, catch it here.
I snagged this on the Buy/Sell/Trade groups recently (even though I have not bought a single dress since April due to the whole buying-a-house thing we're doing) because it was one of my favorites, but also because it was my FIRST vintage repro dress.
ModCloth was my gateway into retro and vintage fashion. I wore a lot of cute novelty print dresses from ModCloth for years before I got my first repro dress with a full and longer swing skirt that warranted a petticoat. It was the summer of 2014 that I first started to rock petticoats under my skirts and dresses.
I originally bought this Bernie Dexter dress on May 14, 2014 and it didn't appear on this blog because the blog didn't exist at the time! When I got this dress back then, I had NO idea who Bernie Dexter was (which is now amusing since 70% of my wardrobe is made up of her dresses!) and just loved the print and cut of the dress. It quickly became my favorite dress and when I wore it, I knew it needed some poof. I ordered my first Hell Bunny petticoat (also from ModCloth) and never looked back.
Because of that, this dress meant a lot to me. It was the dress that really led me into wearing the vintage style I do today. Sadly, it was a size small (wtf 2014 Sara, HOW?) and within a few years, it no longer fit. I sold it to another Bernie-loving gal, accepting the fact that I may never rock it again (it was no longer available on ModCloth or on Bernie Dexter's site).
Every so often, it appears again on the Buy/Sell/Trade groups but not in my size (or scooped up too fast by other Bernie-loving gals). Then a few weeks ago, it popped up in size large and my heart leaped into my throat. The seller was asking for a very reasonable price and had no problem shipping to the US (she was in the UK). 5 years after buying the original, it was MINE AGAIN! Only a couple sizes bigger.
That doesn't bother me - you know how I feel about the tags in our dresses (hint: NO ONE sees the tag so who cares what size is imprinted there?) - and it is just AWESOME to have it back in my wardrobe.
So how have you all been, my little peanuts? It's been a hot minute as we spent the last two weeks or so packing our entire lives up, finalizing things on our new house, and then unpacking our entire lives into the new house! Yep! We now own a house!
We've been settling in gradually and have most of our stuff unpacked (due to my control freak tendencies - I hate NOT having things organized and where they all belong) and are getting adjusted to new sounds (or NO sounds now that we live in a quiet neighborhood vs. busy main street) and living in a much bigger space.
With every project we finish (installing blinds/curtains, swapping out old light fixtures, hanging artwork, etc.), we fall even more in love with the house.
What else is new? Well, Saturday is THE day! The Viva East Darling Dames Pinup Pageant! I am pretty psyched to work my stuff on stage with the other 11 gals and looking forward to the entire weekender. It was such fun the last two years and this year Cody will be there with me!
It's also my birthday on Friday so we'll be celebrating in style at the burlesque shows, car show, pool party, and, of course, all the shopping! I hope if any of you are in attendance, you wave me down and say hello. It's so much fun meeting other retro gals at these events!
