A Dress, Many Questions

Why Did You Buy Your Last Dress?

The question seems simple. We might answer: "Because I needed it." But in what situation do we really need a dress? Unless you're getting married, you likely already have a wardrobe that covers most of society's expectations for your times. So what need does this new dress fulfill?

Do we need a new dress for Saturday because we're afraid we won't be enough? To shed our skin, to hide behind a stranger who wears sequins and high heels? Is it to reassure ourselves about our image, our body, or the attention we get from others? In the end, are we trying to hide by dazzling everyone else?

I write these lines reflecting on my last new dress. It hangs in my closet right now. Of course, I wore it. Of course, I’ll wear it again. Of course, it wasn’t essential. But I wanted a new dress. I needed it to feel good. That day, when I put it on, I felt better for ten minutes, flattered by the novelty and warmed by the compliments. But I remained myself. The new dress just became a dress.

Obviously, you don’t buy self-confidence in a piece of fabric. Obviously, sometimes we want to convince ourselves of that. The new dress won’t transform my old self into a shining version. And honestly, that’s not what I need. But I managed to convince myself that this was the dress I needed.

In these times of inflation, climate catastrophes caused by pollution and overproduction, and production conditions with no morality (since the children who wove the dress barely have enough to wear themselves), our purchases must give way to new questions. Do I need a new hanger, a new piece of fabric, and a new fleeting illusion? Could I not focus on working on myself instead?

Sometimes the answer is that we need a new dress. The old one is torn, or we no longer fit into it. Other times, we want a new dress as we want a new skin, even though we know we won’t shed the old one. And other times, we put the credit card down, take a walk, and realize that, in the end, we’d rather wear pants.

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