The Dress

So if you don't appreciate costumes you should just skip this post.

Last night was Danse Macabre, an SCA event in the Outlands. Along with the great food competition, court dancing and costume contest, there was a silent auction of donated items to benefit the Red Cross disaster relief fund.
I've run a silent auction before and I know that there's usually some pretty cool stuff at SCA ones. So I investigate the 'back room,' looking for some trinket to buy myself for my birthday present.

There it was. The dress I've always wanted to make. The dress of my dreams. THE dress. Red, gold and black Elizabethan with full over and underskirt. Sleeves that reach the floor. Brocaded, beaded, embroidered and slashed, collectively. My GOD.

Every time I've seen women in the SCA wear this type of dress, I get a raging case of the covets. I have wanted one of these for about 10 years. And it is in my colors.

I put on the doublet. Fits like a glove. I can't look in the mirror. I knew it would be love at first sight. $25 opening bid? Sure. Here's $50, no hesitation. I know that I shouldn't be getting emotionally attached, but it's so hard...and all my friends are saying 'it looks like it was made just for you.' Sigh. I must...not...get...attached...

A young girl of about 17 was also very much interested in said dress. I decide to take a stand. My super-secret-ninja-information-gathering-cohort had determined that she had a much lower top price that she could afford to pay than I. And lucky me, I just got paid. If I'm going to wage war, I must know the defences and power of my opponent. Plus, she has a real bad poker face. I felt pretty confident.

I returned to the room a few times throughout the night to make sure no one else was going to jump into the war. I made it known to a few of my good friends that they should casually discourage people from bidding on the dress, with such comments as 'you know it's her birthday next week, and boy, she really loves that dress...'

Yes, I admit it. I played the birthday angle.

30 seconds before the auction ends, the girl looks at me and says "please." All I can say is, "I'm sorry. I will be mercenary about this." I gave her the look that meant business. I actually saw her heart break.

She did manage to sneak a bid in on another very beautiful blue dress, but had quite the display of disappointment anyway about losing THE dress to me. It's tough when two women are THAT much in love with the same dress. I imagined a catfight breaking out and I nearly got the giggles. Yeah, this post would have been all kinds of different if that had happened. I might have been writing it from jail.

Poor girl. I feel kind of bad for breaking her heart.

Ah, well. I'm sure she will remember this day, and hate me for it for quite some time. I understand because I have wanted things bad enough to taste them and have them ripped away right out from under me. I have even begged for such things myself, and lost. So I know the feeling intimately.

Poignant, actually.

I will be adding some buttons to this regal masterpiece, and lo and behold, not only will I have the most gorgeous Halloween outfit EVER, but an SCA outfit that would have taken me well over 200 hours of sewing time. Had I tried to make this myself, the beading, embroidering, slashing and fitting would have driven me straight into an insane asylum.

Now what did I have to cough up for such a dress? $105. This is approximately one quarter to one fifth of the actual value.

That's worth one broken heart to me.

Go ahead and call me a mercenary bitch. I'm certain I deserve at least that much. Probably more.

But when I die, I will wear this dress to hell.