Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Dressy

I have, in the past year or so, become a lover of dresses.  I'm not exactly sure why I made the shift from a jeans and skirt wearer (not at the same time - I've never gotten into that layered look) to a wearer of dresses.  Part of the reason, I think, is that I find them fun to wear.  I think my appreciation of dresses came about in response to watching Pushing Daisies; Chuck is such a lovable character, and her dresses make me extremely envious.  Another part is that they are easy and compact, so when I bike in to uni I can just put one thing (and a bra) into my bag instead of worrying about various component parts of outfits requiring both tops and bottoms.  And after I shower, getting dressed is so easy - sure, I save maybe 1 minute by not putting pants on, but that's 7 minutes over the course of a week.  (I'm mainly joking about this.  I'm not so important as to need that extra 7 minutes for anything useful.)

Anyways.  Most of my dresses come from second hand shops, because I have a hard time parting with my money in large quantities.  This will become even more pronounced in the coming weeks, as my job search has thus far been unsuccessful and my current contracts will soon be over.  Boy, do I miss the scholarship gravy train!  I poo-pooed $6.75 an hour for full-time PhD-ing when I was getting it, but I'd definitely take it without complaints right now!  Job woes aside, I do like to go to shops and, more often, websites, and stare wistfully at various dresses.  Every now and then, I part with my highly valued money and buy a new dress.

This discussion of fashion is meant to segue smoothly into my mention of a new website, ecolissa.com.  This website seriously tempts me to fork over some money and get a dress.  This is for a few reasons: (1) the dresses are soso pretty; (2) the owner, Melissa, is vegan, and I like the idea of supporting vegan business-people; (3) the products are made from environmentally friendly materials; and (4) the exchange rate is really very good at the moment, so ordering things from the US is not nearly as big a decision as it sometimes can be.

Looky:


Or this one:

The site sells women's clothing and accessories, all "fashionable, eco-friendly, and vegan".  And, here's the kicker, if you use the coupon code "eco20" when you check out, you'll get 20% off your purchase.  And if you live in the US, shipping is only $5. 

For me, it's a matter of drooling over the pretty-pretties until I get a job offer, at which point I will definitely take advantage of Melissa's generous offer of a discount and get myself something.  As a reward, ya know?

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for the great post!

Kelly said...

I've been drooling over some of the dresses at Ecolissa, too! I love the ones you chose. Hope the Employment Fairy visits you soon!

Millie said...

those dresses are stunning and you look fabulous.

Hannah said...

Oh, Theresa! Those dresses are gorgeous, and I can't wait to see you wearing them, because you will find a job soon. This whole stupid economic climate mustn't lead you to forget how awesome, dedicated, and intelligent you are, and how fabulous and engaging a lecturer/academic you can be (just think about how happy your students were with you).

I also realised, reading this, that the majority of my 10-ish new dresses gained this year have been second-hand. Even the one I'm wearing right now :) Yay for us!

Theresa said...

Oh Millie, that's not me! I wish it was, but these are photos from the website of things I am drooling over :)

Emma said...

I used to refuse to wear dresses. Mum would buy me one for christmas nearly every year trying to get me to wear them. I've only really just started! I seem to be starting a collection of vintage dresses that I can't really afford haha. Next step will be teaching myself to sew from patterns!

I might check out that website. I also like to support vegan stores.

jess_fildespages said...

That first dress is beautiful!!!! I'm a hardcore dress wearer. I cant handle feeling restricted in jeans.

Dee said...

The first one is so ME! Sadly I have a cycling tan that got out of control and I need sleeves.

I make a really top wage at the Uni (and you will too!) but I still much prefer buying second hand. All my very best dress-up clothes are from Vinnies/Endos, or from Frenchies in Nova Scotia. I tend to like what looks classic, rather than what is in fashion. I also like the BEST quality, but not the ridiculous price. I love vintage stuff too, and you can't get it any other way.

x said...

I'm glad you've found love for dresses! They are my favourite thing to wear, especially in summer when I cannot imagine wearing long sleeves or pants!

I love the second dress you posted, we should add them to our Christmas wish list ;)

Vaala ◪ said...

They are pretty beautiful but I just can't make myself where dresses. I don't even really ever wear skirts either. It was a joke coming into summer last year that I would have to stop wearing jeans...so I started wearing denim shorts!

Good luck on the job hunting. It's tough work. I have started looking for a new job as I'm looking at moving cities. Spent last night looking over my CV but working on it all seemed a bit much at the time!

The Vegan Snorkeler said...

Pretty dresses! You're right, they're so easy. Put one on and bam! An outfit.

Vegan ninja said...

I understand the scholarship thing, the only thing I will NOT miss of having a scholarship are the conferences we have to attend, and the nasty comments from other colleagues most of us get about our papers (I just arrived from one). The dresses are fabulous, especially the second one!

Susan said...

Oh so pretty! I love wearing dresses. :) Though sadly I don't get to wear them a lot. Not really work-appropriate for the the cat vet. I still have a large collection of them though to bring out when I can!

Good luck with the job hunt, hopefully things will sort themselves out soon!

Susan said...

Oh so pretty! I love wearing dresses. :) Though sadly I don't get to wear them a lot. Not really work-appropriate for the the cat vet. I still have a large collection of them though to bring out when I can!

Good luck with the job hunt, hopefully things will sort themselves out soon!