"Stretch" shopping: Springing for something different
A friend has invited me to shop with her for a spring-summer dress, maybe two. This is harder than you would think, because Kris has not bought a casual dress for close to twenty years— and that style might not be what she wants today. She is like many of us: it's not hard to find trousers, shirts, tees—but take us into terra incognita , we're less confident. This is what I call Stretch Shopping: the search for something with which you have little experience, or haven't bought since you made a phone call from a booth. Where to begin? Three steps: 1. Look at someone who wears this piece well, and is roughly your shape and age. My friend Paula, slim and fine-boned, and newly-retired like Kris, sprang to mind. Paula wears only dresses unless gardening. Her signature look is graceful and feminine; her dresses are comfortable but never mumsy. Paula said, "I choose knee-length fitted dresses with a defined waist and a-line skirt. It's the right balance for my frame....
