There are many ways for people to get out of a bad mood.
Some swear by meditations, some with physical exercise or even sleep—all the healthy approaches to life’s unpleasant moments. I am not one of those “some” people.
My typical remedy for pulling myself out of unhappy moments involves a not-so-healthy diet: Hagen Daz ice cream, coffee kind.
However, when the ice cream intervention does not work in certain gloomy situations, I turn to my tried and true, high-success rate approach: shopping.
These shopping excursions are not limited to buying shoes/clothes (although there have been many). I can even enjoy spending time at a hardware store looking for the perfect drill bits I may need in the future.
Something about being in a store looking at shiny new items, whether trying to find another perfect black boot or finding a unique tool at a hardware store; the experience brings the joy and happiness that no meditation/ physical exercise/sleep can bring.
Definitely not the physical exercise!
I experience such an uplifting feeling with one clothing item.
The sequin dress lifted my mood
March is the worst month of the year.
It is the month with many hopeful feelings and thoughts colliding with the gloomy realities of winter like temperature.
Springtime is worse than winter.
Being hopeful for warmer/sunnier days is all within our heads!
Realizing that I need to get up one hour earlier to face the same winter mornings is the annual torment I go through.
However, something strange but wonderful happened this March, and it happened with my never-been-worn Banana Republic shiny party dress I bought at a clearance sale.
I had no use for the dress since the purchase. It was the wrong size(XXL), wrong colour (not black), and wrong purpose (I have not been to holiday parties in ages).
As I got older, staying in with a warm comforter with remote control and watching the New Year’s celebration seemed much more enticing than going out for the New Year’s Eve party. It lost the appeal I once had in my youth.
So, why did I buy the enormous size, impractical dress?
I still have the simple, uncompromising philosophy regarding sales, especially the huge ones I had when I saw the red clearance tag on the dress in question.
I could not pass by the clearance tag, even if I could not clearly articulate the dress’s uses, functions, or occasions. The price tag won the argument in the end.
Many thoughts were swarming in my head at the time; surely, with the right belt, I could make the huge dress work (did not); I may want to go to more holiday parties (have not); or I might just grow to love the new colour, “shine” (sort of).
Ultimately, the very deep discount of 75% won, and the dress came with me and hung in my closet for over three years without seeing the light until a few weeks ago.
While trying to pick out an outfit in the sea of black clothes, I saw the glimmer of shine peaking through the corner of my closet.
Like the shiny dress, I felt the momentary feeling of energy – upbeat, lifting, even dare say happiness. It was the time for the dress to see the light, especially the daylight kind!
Wearing the sparkly dress for lunchtime felt awkward, but I also felt the unusual emotion of cold spring days: happiness.
Shine is the new black in 2023
“It is so in right now.”
Apparently, I was wearing the “in” dress, according to my girlfriend, who I was meeting for lunch. She followed her comments with the 2023 spring fashion trend; shiny/fluffy are all the rage, according to her social media feed.
Wearing outfits made with shiny and fluffy fabrics-typically associated with party dresses-for the daytime is the trend every celebrity is doing… apparently.
It turns out I became the “in” crowd without even trying…or, more accurately, even knowing.
Wearing the dress with a soft/warm cashmere sweater (it is still minus temperature) over the dress made it feel less party but, dare say, trendy.
After the fashion-filled gossip lunch, and with my friend’s encouragement, I decided that the dress should move to a more prominent central closet spot.
Sparkle makes old outfits new again.
I have always liked combining something new and unexpected as a design approach.
Examples are the old historical building with new modern addition attached, classic wooden table with high tech looking chair, or combination of feminine blouse with men’s style pants.
Individually these items do not stand out on their own. It is the backdrop of contrasting something else that helps the other object to stand out.
Combining the very old( classic cashmere sweater) with a new and unexpected (shiny party dress) created a completely NEW outfit I never knew I had.
Final Thought
Spring is a depressing time of the year.
With the hope of warmer and brighter days; and the melancholy of cold/dark realities, my mood stays down, especially around the annual spring Daylight Saving Time.
Creation(?) of something new out of a forgotten clothing item in the dreary springtime provided happiness I did not expect, especially without involving the credit card!
Of course, the ending of Daylight Saving Time in the fall would be an entirely different story: the euphoria of extra hour of sleep!
Life Outside of Design Studio 
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