sequins: the epilogue

I guess I was blinded by my own research…because I found myself at Macy’s last night on a mission to track down a sequined gown for a black-tie event this weekend. Before I knew it, I was the proud owner of not one, but TWO gloriously sequined scarves…one in a warm, rich gold; the other in dazzling platinum. They were marked $39.50 each. When I got to the register, they rang up at $29.90. Love those happy surprises.

Ah, but I still had the little problem of the dress. After running all over the mall (seriously lacking in selection), I ended up in the Special Occasion department of Nordstrom, where a sales associate asked me what MY special occasion was. I explained that I had a black-tie-event this Saturday. She probed further: “Which one?” And when I told her, she swiftly eliminated nine of the 12 choices they had on the floor, as other patrons of said ball had purchased them before me “and we can’t have you all wearing the same dresses.” I appreciated her forethought, but now the pickings were down to three. One was actually quite gorgeous–black, one-shoulder, and (of course) sequined. She found my size at another store and arranged to have it overnighted to my house.

Except it was a little more than I wanted to spend ($400 with expedited shipping), so I found myself online at 11 p.m. last night, madly searching “one-shoulder sequined evening gowns.” And imagine my surprise when I found a rather similar beauty at Nordstrom.com. First, it’s cheaper ($228); second, it’s navy (love that color even more than black). I call to order it, thinking that I’d pick between them on Saturday morning and return one. But as seems to be my compulsive habit, I continued to search the net while speaking to the Nordstrom phone operator… next thing I know, I’ve found the exact dress on Zappos for $158. So now I ask the phone op (nice guy, by the way), “Hey, do you happen to match pricing at other stores? “Sure,” he says…and promptly charged me the Zappos price while explaining that he’d also wave the $30 one-day shipping fee. (I’m presuming because Zappos doesn’t charge for shipping.)

So, this Saturday morning at my house, it will be Battle of the One-Shoulder Sequin Gowns….I will let you know who won the match after my inevitable hangover on Sunday wears off.