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Many years ago when I first fell in love with John, the love spilled over into a gypsy dress I saw at the same time in a local store in Brooklyn, NY. It stopped me dead in my tracks.
It was black, fitted to my body and swirled out with streams of embroidered ribbons hanging down from my waist to hem.
It was a knockout! I was a knockout in it. I felt like a gypsy princess when I looked at myself in the mirror. At the same time New Year’s Eve was coming up and John asked me out. So when I saw this dress in the store I immediately bought it on the spot.
I would twirl around in the dress and the long multicolored ribbons would fly away from the dress. I must have looked like a maypole. Even though it’s been years since I had bought that dress I always keep a photo of it in my mind. It so reminded me of when I fell in love with John, our romance, how beautiful on the inside and out that I felt. Before I even wore it I would hang it up on the outside of my closet as a decoration in my bedroom.
When I was little I used to dress up all the time as a gypsy on Halloween, and this dress reminded me of those times when I was a little girl. If the dress could speak she would say, “I found the most beautiful woman to wear me for the first time on New Year’s Eve, and she made me feel proud of being a woman.”
In all my years of creative dressing, I don’t believe anything has had such an effect on me as the gypsy dress. When thinking about it my memory is triggered by love, falling in love, beauty, and lightness of being. it was the most beautiful dress I have ever had.
New Year’s Eve, I opened the door and John was amazed when he saw me in the dress. He totally approved and grabbed me by the waist, held me in his arms, swung me around, and said, “I am going to marry you someday.”
Needless to say, we eventually went to a fabulous restaurant in downtown Brooklyn, NY that John had made reservations at. When I first walked into the restaurant I could feel heads turn as I walked by each table. Actually, I didn’t walk, I floated.
John and I had met at a party he had in the Fall of 1989. He actually was with a date and I had come with one of my friends. John and I danced briefly and I left the party soon after. I was very uncomfortable at parties where I didn’t know most of the people, so I excused myself to John and my friend and left and drove myself home to Forest Hills, NY. The next morning, my friend called me and said, “John flipped out over you. If he doesn’t call you right away I will be surprised.”
After I hung up with my friend, the phone rang again and yes, it was John. We eventually moved in together and it was a very important relationship in my life.
Many years ago when I first fell in love with John, the love spilled over into that gypsy dress I saw in the local store in Brooklyn, NY. It had stopped me dead in my tracks.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
