Kleinfeld's dressing room, Brooklyn, 1983.

On a recent trip to visit my Mother, I found this long lost photo in one of her scrapbooks. It was taken by a saleswoman at the end of a very long day of trying on wedding gowns.

Shopping for that dress was an event. I enlisted the help of my Mother and Grandmother because the thought of buying anything other than "work clothes" gave me tremendous anxiety attacks. (Note to self: Dressing Room disorder-future blog)  They flew to New York to assist and we made a weekend out of the whole affair. I felt like it took about six hours to identify "the dress" but in reality, it was way less than two.

The flood of memories upon finding this little gem were "ignormous" as my kids used to say. My Grandmother, now long gone, looked absolutely stunning. My Mother was a firm believer in getting dressed to shop and these gals got dressed for everything...including Doctor appointments. Somehow, I never got that gene.

When I look at this photo, my Mother's face says, "I know that you hate dressing rooms, honey, but just smile and we can get the hell outta here".

I'm pretty sure that there was another picture of a less poofy number taken as well, but it too went missing.

I remember giving a camera ready smile but thinking "This is a big f**ken dress for a little person...I'll never buy it". 

OMG, I did.