Day Two Hundred and Sixty Three

I decided that it was time I arranged a girls night in Cape Town, not because Cape Town is "the place to party" but because Laura is one of the few committed friends that are always willing to drive through to Somerset West. I'd barely walked through her front door before the bonding ritual for all women began - the catch-up chat over the cooking stove. Amongst many discussions, one of them was what we were going to do that night and after some thought we had made our plans (many of which were based upon being spontaneous). We texted Kylie and arranged to meet with her at a venue of her choice for the first drink. So after dinner, we allowed time to pass us by with one of my new fav series 'Community' - a must see if you haven't heard of it! When we thought it was late enough, we got dressed and walked confidently out the door in our heels and into a world of...tracksuits. When did a night out turn into stepping out your bedroom unkempt with a pair of pumps become the new 'party look'? I had always saved special dresses and heels for the glam life of Cape Town because it's the one place you can dress up to the nines and not be called a slutty whore by the girl with the flat plakkies and baggy shorts. And yet, I found myself thoroughly disappointed as I walked into club after club only to be greeted by a diner-kitchen-special look.  This followed by the constant onslaught of men as myself and Laura just found a chair to breathe completely left me mildly confused and unfortunately my sarcastic switch was turned on for a night of boy-batting. Then it clicked, all the attention that never usually happens and the confident shows of flexed muscles, were just for the two of us and why? because we were the only two girls that had bothered to look as good as we felt. At one point I had a man ask me why I was dressed so "shnazzy" (forgot that word existed) and my honest answer was "because I dress good every day, no matter where I am because it makes ME feel good." I'm disappointed that a question like that needs to be asked... we are still young and are meant to have the youth of life within us and instead, we're bound by the term 'comfortable' and 'easy to walk in'. I'm not saying spend an entire day planning an outfit or putting make up on, I'm not even saying wear heels if you struggle to walk in them but what I am saying is take the time to show off that spark that you have hidden behind your frump. As someone who has always loved collecting cocktail dresses, it makes me question why we get so excited about a new season in fashion or even a sale sign when we aren't going to be wearing the clothes that excite us. We use to take the time to make ourselves look pretty and now we are just letting ourselves go. I say this knowing that I come across as sounding snobbish, but really? Are bedroom slippers the new dance shoes? Are tracksuit pants with electric red Adidas strips down the side the new ass-hugging jeans? Is an ex or current boyfriends over-sized, stained t-shirt the new dress? I remember writing a blog years ago about women who get married and who get comfortable in their life and therefore lose the need to pamper or look after themselves because they no longer see a need to look attractive for their husband. In that blog I told those ladies to make the effort because you aren't just making an effort for you, you're doing it for your husband too and let me tell you, there were MANY men who agreed with that blog. Now it seems that we no longer need to be married in order to be comfortable because it seems that being comfortable is the new 'trend'. It's sad that I will now have to go to places outside of my price range just to feel like I'm not being judged for wearing a simple cocktail dress and heels. It's sad that lazy has become the new "schnazzy".

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