I’m with you on Michelle. I’m betting the dress in question was bought in a hurry and that it coordinated with her daughters’ dresses was a factor. Mothers do stuff like that. Usually she wears clothes that suit her well.

I suppose part of it is that I depend more on my intelligence and personality than on my looks to make my way in the world, but another part of it may be that I’ve never exactly cared that much about fashion, so I’d probably be likely to be wearing last year’s dress or somesuch to that sort of a thing. Or if I had loads of money? I’d hire a dressmaker to work out something individual that was particularly flattering to my own set of body-challenges.

But alas, I missed the Beaux-Arts Ball, and what is twice as sad, I was never at a party that honored Noel Coward, so perhaps my lack of concern over the issue has to do with the fact that I really don’t go anywhere all that “formal”