What's better than a dress?

Someone caught me doing something silly at work yesterday. I said something I was thinking out loud. I thought I was alone. I wasn't. I also wasn't all that upset that I was caught because I was expressing an appreciation for something beautiful. It was a dress and I said: "That dress is going to be the death of me." It's the second time this month that a dress has taken my breath away. The first time I was so moved I quoted Jerry Maguire. "That's more than a dress. That's an Audrey Hepburn movie." I got the quote wrong but I was flustered. It was more than a dress.

All of this however made me think about men and our love for dresses. I don't mean wearing a dress I mean a beautiful dress on a beautiful woman and the allure which it holds for us.
Is there anything better than a dress? Whether it's Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's or the heart-stopping image of Marylin Monroe standing over a New York subway grate - the image of a beautiful woman in a dress evokes a visceral reaction in most men. I am not an anthropologist but perhaps it has a lot to do with the traditional roles (I am not a traditionalist either) of girls and boys which we are taught from a young age. Maybe it explains why women like a man in a suit.
But what I do know? Like I said I am not an anthropologist.

What I am is a straight guy who is fascinated by all things feminine and beautiful. And to me there is nothing more feminine than a dress. A soft, silk evening dress which catches the moonlight just right, a slinky strapped brightly coloured summer dress which betrays her airy, fun side or a well fitted business dress which hugs the curves of her body perfectly. A good dress has the ability to make a grown man snatch at his breath.

This is starting to sound sexist - so let me add a caveat. We know it's about more than the dress, so much more but please bear with me here - I am inspired by what I have seen recently.

Where was I? Dresses.

There is of course a well kept secret to a beautiful dress.

Yves Saint-Laurent said: "Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it."

And nothing could be more true. Ladies you have to own it. A dress worn with confidence is more than just a dress.

 

The man you fall in love with will undoubtebly have many memories of you and your life together. Many of them will be visual and rest assured one of them will be of you in a dress.

 

 

No one knew more about dresses and how to wear them than Coco Channel. When she said look for the woman in the dress she was on the money. It's the reason that a woman can walk into a room filled with a hundred other beautiful women and still turn heads. It's more than just a dress.