The theme for the annual gala at my daughter's preschool this year is "The Speakeasy." With Oscar nominated films like The Artist and Midnight in Paris, and a remake of The Great Gatsby on the way, the '20s couldn't be more timely or appropriate.
Even though I've known about the theme since October, because of the craziness of the holidays, I didn't start looking for an outfit until earlier this month. Now the gala is a couple of weeks away and I'm scrambling!
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If I had the money, I would just drive on down to Beverly Hills and buy an amazing dress! Designers from Ralph Lauren to Gucci and Alberta Ferretti are showing Art Deco-inspired clothing, and everyone from Salma Hayek to Charlize Theron has been donning the look. I can't quite afford to go that route though!
I didn't know where to begin my Jazz Age style search, so I asked a couple of stylish friends where they would look, and a couple of local vintage stores were suggested. The first one I went to laughed when I told them about my '20s-themed party saying that that era is really hard to do...a lot of the clothes didn't survive and the really good pieces are very expensive. They rent flapper outfits though, and showed me a couple, but I wasn't quite ready to throw in the towel yet.
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I looked at another vintage store where I tried on about eight dresses that didn't work for one reason or another before I hit the internet. I searched eBay and Etsy, where I found you can have a flapper dress custom-made, but it takes at least six weeks and I didn't have that kind of time.
I saw some beautiful vintage dresses and the biggest problem is that I am an amazon compared to the ladies of the '20s. Most of the outfits wouldn't fit my big toe! Some really nice ones were also really expensive and I just can't justify spending a lot of money on a dress I will probably only wear once. Finally, I saw a pretty vintage beaded dress that I bought on Etsy. It's very heavy, but it was pretty affordable and it fits!
Then I started my shoe search. Anything vintage is practically impossible to find in a size 8.5 or 9...so I looked on Amazon and on various dance shoe sites and found some vintage-inspired silver and black shoes that will work.
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Now, I just have to work out all the accessories and details. I have long pearls I can throw on. My friend Sara said she'd loan me a headpiece and then I need to figure out what to do for hair and makeup, since I am not very skilled at either.
I can't believe how much preparation has gone into just getting an outfit for the event, but I learned last year the hard way that people get way into this, so I'm trying to at least look the part!
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--By Ryan Patterson
Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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