It is that time at the end of the year for events, galas and parties. It is the time to take our beautiful clothes for an outing, to put on our Brioni suits, our shiny dresses, ‘Sex and the city’ type of shoes and to make it to the podium! At least, that is the dress code of the invitations we receive for these galas: elegant, even luxurious.
But hold on: what does this mean? For some, an elegant attire means a tuxedo, jeans, t-shirt; for others, a backless dress (I also saw some that were almost frontless ☺), or a brown checkered skirt, winter boots and a jumper; or, in a man’s case, a suit 2 sizes too large, maybe in the hope that he will grow taller or in fear that the suit will shrink.
I recently worked with an actress – meaning she taught me, who told me that the stage should be honoured, treated with respect. Extrapolating from this, I would say that those events are an invitation on a stage. If we are invited to a gala, we could honour the invitation not only by making an appearance but also by respecting the suggested dress code. Maybe the organisers had something in mind. If we are invited to a barbecue, we will dress accordingly. Why wouldn’t we do the same with a gala?
At the end of the day, we do not dress for someone else but for us.