Choir closet

Last week, I sang in a choir concert.

In a long digression from the actual topic of this blog, I will now tell you all about dressing for choir concerts. We singers have each been issued a hideous polyester blouse with huge ugly collar and the world's biggest and most obviously cheap plastic buttons. But on the bottom, we get to choose our own long black skirt. Now, when you're just one of several dozen women in ugly white blouses, you at least want your skirt to stand out a bit, so I've been on a hunt for the perfect choir skirt ever since I've been a member (2 years). I look at the other ladies in the choir for inspiration, but none of them has anything that I really want. Some wear straight skirts, which I find so boring as to potentially cause death. At least one wears big fancy pants. But that's not my style either. My skirt must be flowy and twirly and flared, and long enough to sweep the floor.

When I started, I had a suede skirt that I had bought at a thrift store a year or so back. Eventually I grew tired of it (mostly because it was real leather and I would have had to get it professionally cleaned if I were to keep wearing it) and replaced it with a tiered gypsy skirt of the sort that was in fashion a few years ago. Before we even held our next concert, I realized that skirt was just not long enough, so I sprang for a different, slightly longer tiered gypsy skirt. The zipper on that one popped open right before our last Christmas concert and never would stay zipped after that, so I set out in search of a different skirt.

A few weeks before the last concert, I found a pretty rayon skirt with embroidered poinsettias at the bottom. It was the longest skirt I'd found yet (still not floor length), and flowy and twirly, just the way I like them. The flowers added a unique touch. But when I wore it to the concert, I discovered it's slightly shorter in the back than the front, making for an extremely undignified profile that's too unique, even for me.

Today while perusing the thrift store (where I bought a very cute brown skirt that I totally forgot to try on, and only discovered when I got home that it fits, but it doesn't fit attractively...), I found on the 3$-a-bag rack, a long black skirt! I picked it. It is pleated the whole length, which should be hell to take care of, but that makes it so cute! It is also even longer than the last one. I see floor-sweeping almost within my reach! Unfortunately, I didn't find anything else on the 3$ rack that I wanted, so I filled my bag with things that I thought I might be able to resell for a profit.

But all that wasn't what I came here to talk to you about today. It was what I saw while walking into my choir concert. An old lady in a genuine fringed dress, like she'd just walked straight out of the twenties! All of a sudden, I want nothing more than a fringed dress! Why isn't fringe in style!? Where can I find it? And how much will I have to pay to achieve this look I suddenly covet? I'll keep you posted.