I should already be in bed but I must post after finding out that today is National Dress Day. I mean ultimately it’s like the holiday that was created for me. I should have already known it existed but it took an email from one of my favorite stores (sharing a sale no less for the thing that it’s celebrating and the thing that I buy the most there), then I double-checked to confirm it was a real thing. Then, I visited the national dress day website and found a quote that says it all–

“Because no great story ever started with jeans”.

Amen to that.

There’s a reason the bio for my public-facing Instagram account is “You’ll find me drinking tea in a dress and reading… or making lists”. And why my “Dressed” Pinterest board is majority dresses and a play on that attire (if they can all magically appear in my closet, that would be great). And also why my colleague lovingly broke the “rules” governing gift-giving and gifted me a dress in celebration of an achievement.

I’ve shared, especially in professional conversations that preparing for presentations or important events like author visits almost always includes a new dress. If not a dress, new jewelry or heels. And it’s literally just a mental game, with a long-term effect. All of my dresses then have memories.

Just last week I had to throw out a dress after an irreparable rip, but before I did, I sat for a few minutes remembering the summer presentation that I gave it in;  I have my Ruta dress and my Zentner dress. The one from my first paid presentation. I remember our first author visit ever, Ellen Hopkins, and the dress I wore that no longer fits but was lovingly sold on consignment. I remember it and the day itself in association with it. I will never give up my obsession for dresses because that’s the day that I begin to forget emotions surrounding events that happened in them.

I’ll add that as I’m finishing the last half of What We Keep: 150 People Share the One Object that Brings them Joy, Magic, and Meaning by Bill Shapiro with Naomi Wax, and I can say that I don’t keep the dresses I must retire for one reason or another, but I do have a folder of pictures to go back and revisit whenever I’d like.

I’m dying to know– is there something undeniably “you” in how or what you dress in?