Welcome to the third installment in my new series, "Wear Your Praise Wednesday".
{For an explanation of how it was that wearing cute clothes became a tool for me, in healing from clinical depression...to learn why I "Wear My Praise", you can click here for the very first "Wear Your Praise Wednesday" - or here for the second installment.}
This blog post will seem counter intuitive to those girls who have, all their lives, felt a sense of shame if their slip happened to show. But I am here with a liberating word:
Those days are gone!
It is now hereby cool and awesome to let your slip show. If it is a pretty slip. To be very, very precise - it is now hereby cool and awesome to let your slip show if it is trimmed in the most beautiful lace or tulle imaginable.
Why is this? I've been telling you and telling you: layers are our friends. That pretty peek of lace just adds another layer to your look.
And, in my opinion, that petticoat also serves a practical purpose...it serves to lengthen an otherwise too-short hem.
Is it me, or have you also noticed that some girls (and women) just did not get the memo that if you wonder if a garment is a short dress or a long top...
it's a shirt. Girlfriend - trust me on this. If you have to wonder....it's a shirt.
Suffice it to say, as edgy as I am in most of my life choices, I simply can't wear a dress I can't worship in safely.
Please tell me you can relate. I can't be the only Charisbyterian in the crowd, whose wardrobe choices revolve around whether she can lift a grand baby onto her hip while keeping one arm high in the air, or jump up and down, or do a hitch-kick, or drop to her knees in worship.
Or maybe that's just me. And just kidding about the hitch-kick. But the rest is the gospel truth.
For those reasons plus a few more, if a dress is more than an inch or so above my kneecap, I tend to feel twitchy.
It might be hemline semantics, but when I put a petticoat under it, that extra inch or so of layer puts my mind at a little more ease. Visually, I feel I look more like I am comfortable with my age, and less like I'm trying too hard. Mini skirts and short dresses belong to the under-30 crowd, not the pushing 50 crowd.
I was asked to share sources.
The shoes were $8.59 clearance at The Shoe Show {don't hate}
dress: Marshalls, this year
necklace: my design
the slip: a Target slip that I sewed lace onto
This little linen dress is one of my favorites, simply because on a hot summer day, it literally floats on me - it breathes and is so airy and comfortable.
This is another dress I absolutely adore, but can't wear without a little hemline semantics. I have to have my petticoat/slip extender on, both for the look of the layer (in my mind, no outfit is complete without at least two layers) and for the false comfort it gives me in bringing the length of this dress down, visually, to just above the kneecap.
sources:
shoes: Shoe Show, clearance
dress: Jeanne Oliver
bifocal readers: readers.com
slip: plain Target slip, embellished with lace by yours truly
For our last look, the "petticoat" goes up-top and casual....
On any given day, I am never without my bifocal readers, so here is how I actually wear this top:
sources:
shoes: Shoe Show, clearance
jeans: "modern straight cropped stretch jean" by Denizen at Target
top: Target
military-style cropped jacket: "Lucky Brand Clothing" - Marshalls
Now. Lest you think that "slip extender" is some silly term made up by yours truly, allow me to share with you a young woman who created a major online business around this very concept...
Meet "Grace and Lace". I discovered them years ago, and instantly fell in love, back when all they had to offer was a few socks and slips. Since then, they have appeared on the hit show "Shark Tank", and have grown their business beyond their dreams, I am sure.
It is a new day for the petticoat, and I am glad. Looking back, I remember one of my dearest friends, who happens to be an elderly lady, came up to me in church with what I could see was an urgent message. She pulled me aside, and whispered, "It. is. snowing. down. south."
Which was code for, "Your slip is showing. Get your act together."
I smiled and explained to her that it was supposed to show.
She shook her head in disbelief as she walked away. I was 40-something years old, but on that day I felt like an edgy young whippersnapper.
