Dress Shopping

Via Unfogged, I found this New York Times Magazine article about matchmakers.  It's a worthwhile article, with a skeptical narrator profiling three different kinds of matchmakers.  For the past couple of days this excerpt has been sticking with me:

At times it strikes me that she talks about marrying as if it were shopping for a dress. Everyone knows that when you go out looking for the perfect dress, you can't find it. You drag your friends to store after store. The event grows closer; you're still shopping. How about this one, your friends ask, or this? Any of these would look lovely. The event has started; you're still in the store. Better to buy an imperfect dress than to miss the party entirely, your friends counsel. You cave. Then you go to the party and have a great time and get compliments, and you can't remember why you agonized so long.

Hmmmmmmm. 

Comments

[dgm]

But what if the main reason you want to go to the party is that you think everyone else will be there? Then you're not buying the dress because you really want it, but because you think you need something to wear to the party.

Sure, there are lots of beautiful dresses out there. But you want the one that fits you; the one that reflects your style and makes you look good. You want the one that looks like it was made for you, sister. Say you're a low-key, down-to-earth girl and, under pressure, you decide on a beautiful emerald, empire-waisted dress with some strappy gold sandals because you've seen it in magazines and think it looks pretty (on others). You figure, "what the hell." So you go to the party in the dress and drink and laugh and everyone compliments you, but when you go to the bathroom and see yourself in the mirror, you can't quite shake the feeling that you're in someone else's dress.