1st Birthday Series: The Dress

Have you heard the expression "To poison one's mind"?  I would like to explain this using references from the movie Inception.  Inception is the process of implanting an idea into somebody else's mind in such a manner that the other person never realises that the idea is not his/her own (I think I got it right!).  In other words: the idea belongs to somebody else...but it is implanted in another person's mind.  The same thing happened in this topic.

My sister is blessed with two sons.  She has a very interesting sense of fashion and her boys are always well dressed and very often non-conventionally (I doubt I have seen a baby younger than 6 months wearing a shervani yet!).  Through her friends and colleagues, she heard of a fashion boutique that specialises in designer clothes for kids (daughters!).  The place is called Strawberry.   Ever since Jennifer was born, my sister has been telling us that we just have to get her birthday dress from there.  

I have my reservations concerning designer wear...I find them over-priced and frankly, not that special.  I mean unless one is aware of what is happening in the fashion circles, I doubt people would recognise a certain design as 'one of its kind'.  And unless a design is recognised as unique, what is the point of spending such sums on such attires?  Especially if the person wearing them is only 12 months old and is happiest running around sans clothes!  That's a personal thought.

However, as fate would have it, my wife is a woman, too!!!  Obviously, the thought of her first-born wearing a designer dress for her own party is too overwhelming.  So, being the good husband that I am (Note: I can promote my positive points on my blog!), I agreed a year back that we would get the dress from 'Strawberry' for the birthday.

Months passed.  Birthday approached fast.  Husband got reminded now and then about his 'Strawberry' promise.  Finally, the time came when I had to act upon my word.  Circumstances were kind to us and my sister couldn't come along (he he he!).  Our nuclear family went on foot from MG Road and tried to spot the 'designer store'.  Considering the types of designer stores I have seen in Indiranagar and other places, I had my expectations set.  These said expectations came quickly crashing down!

'Strawberry' turned out to be a small shop (maybe 3x5m dimensions), with hardly any proper lighting, no ventilation (except one fan above the cashier's chair) and hundreds of dresses.  We showed Jennifer to them and asked for birthday gowns.  I don't know what happened, but suddenly my thoughts and those of my wife were in perfect sync.  We unanimously found the colours too loud and the designs not that special.  Readers, kindly don't get me wrong.  The place had some very nice gowns for slightly bigger kids, but we hardly found anything that we thought would suit Jenny.  The whole store-browsing took about quarter hour.

We left the shop without any pangs of sorrow that our kid would not be wearing a designer dress on her birthday.  In fact, I was even happier that the decision was shared by my wife and did not have to come from my mouth.  However, less than half hour later, we found a dress for Jenny in another shop nearby that we liked immediately, which cost almost 1/3rd of the other gown and which was still branded (though not designer wear!).  

As usual, our expedition ended with a good dinner at a place called 'Crazy Kababs and Curries', which I strongly recommend to people favouring Indian cuisine to try.  It was very cosy, nice ambience, very good food and quite reasonably priced.  Thus ended the year long anticipated 'dress shopping'.

Next part of the series ideally should be concerning the theme, decoration, cards and so on...let's hope I can stick to the plan. :)