A Love Story About a Dress and the No Strings Burlesque Cabaret

This outfit is like a love story.

One of those stories where the protagonists meet, and they’re in love, but they’re not in the right place in their lives so they go their separate ways and meet up again in 20 years when they’ve grown and matured, and then they live happily after.

Well, it’s probably not much like that at all, but it has a story none the less. It’s the story of a lovely dress.

You might have read me wittering about my weight loss and body image battles before. If you haven’t then you all you really need to know is that in February 2007 I was about 3 stone heavier than I am now. Then I started Weight Watchers.

I lost a lot of weight, and in December 2007 I had no clothes that fit me. It was nearly New Years Eve and in a panic I found myself frantically trawling the sale rails of Next for a dress that fit and looked ok. I’d forgotten how to buy nice clothes as nothing had fit for so long, and in the end I settled on a green satin empire line dress with a cute bow in the middle. I thought it went well with my new red hair and I teamed it with black accessories. I felt like I looked nice for the first time in ages.

But I was still only half way through losing all that weight, and soon the lovely dress didn’t fit me anymore. It was too big and it just had to go off to a lovely new friend it found through eBay. It didn’t matter though, as now I’d lost some weight I was rediscovering all the lovely new things I could wear, stocking my wardrobe with vintage dresses that now came in my size and experimenting with exciting new looks.

But recently I found myself thinking about that dress. I’m not normally a fan of dresses that hoist your waist band up around your rib cage, but this was a proper Empire line, it was meant to be there, and I remembered how nice it made me feel when I got all dressed up to go out that night. So I had a bit of a search on eBay, on the off chance that I might find the dress in a smaller size. And I did.

❤ Dress - Next via eBay ❤ Shoes - Salvador Sapena via eBay  ❤
❤ Hat - Custom made by Abilu Creations ❤

This time round it’s purple, not green, but it’s the same dress, in a smaller size, and I love it. (You might also notice I’ve acquired a new lamp and a few more pictures since 2007!)

I teamed it with my Abilu Creations hat and 40s style Salvador Sapena bow trim shoes then headed off to the Norwich Puppet Theatre for a night at the No Strings Burlesque and Cabaret club. This show featured, amongst others, a couple of hilarious turns by ukelele playing Des O’Conner, imagine a mix between George Formby and Julian Clary, and performances from one of the best Burlesque acts I’ve seen, Miss Banbury Cross.

There was also dancing, drink and lots of people sheltering from the pouring, persistent torrential rain outside.