Bridesmaid Dress

Many years ago when I was at university I had a dusky pink pink taffeta full length bridesmaid dress with short puffed sleeves.

I actually bought it from a Pronuptia store in person, giving some reason why I was buying it and chancing size and fit - I was lucky - it was perfect.  It looked very much like this one, only pink.

I also bought a big white bridal net petticoat which had about 5 layers of net in multiple tiers to go under it - I remember carrying these 2 big bags back to the car and then having to leave them in the boot until my housemates had gone to bed before getting them in so I could try them on.

This dress was the business.  It was very full, especially with the massive stiff white net petticoat underneath to hold it out.  And being taffeta, made the best noise when it moved.  The net just made it more noisy!

I used to have a lot of fun dressing in that dress.

I'd dress up - tight corset and lingerie underpinnings, stockings and some very high heels.  Makeup and a brown bob wig - I was actually pretty convincing, except for the fact I was in a massive rustling dress.

Sometimes, during the holidays when my housemates had gone home, I'd have the place to myself and I'd float about the place, working on my thesis all dressed up.

Other times, I'd wait till the house was quiet before going for a alate night drive somewhere.  Either dressed already, making the trip down the stairs and outside as quietly the dress would allow, or I'd take the dress with me and be dressed in one of my other dresses.

I had this game, and this is the main theme of this blog, where I would drive off somewhere and leave a key to a steering lock in a park or something then drive a way off - a few miles - and park the car.  I'd then lock the steering lock to the steering wheel, meaning I'd have no choice but to walk to get the key whilst dressed in this bridesmaids dress.   I'd usually leave 2 keys in different locations to be safe.

If I'd gone out in my male clothes and got changed in the car, I'd have left a padlock key as well and slip a chain through the clothes and lock them with the padlock, so I'd have no choice but to walk down quiet residential street dressed up like a prom queen.

I had one particular location I loved which meant I had to cross a brightly lit main road.  I'd have a 20 metre walk with no hiding places to this road and across to the other side bathed in streetlights from the side street I was on - I used to have to gather the courage to go for it, knowing that if someone came up, I'd be spotted, but also knowing that couldn't very well just stay in the relative safety of this side street with places to hide, as I had to get the keys.

I loved that dilemma, that self imposed predicament.   Stay/go. Risk/chance.

Sometimes I'd have to hide in a driveway to avoid being spotted when a car came.

And then after half an hour or so, I'd have the keys safe in my trembling hands but I'd still have the walk all the way back again to the car with all the chances of getting spotted.  And then I'd have to get back into the house with my sleeping housemates....

Just thinking about this gives me goosebumps.

Can you imagine having a self imposed walk in public in dresses like these?