Sleeveless Dresses

Of all the mysteries in life, perhaps the greatest is the sleeveless holiday dress. A few weeks ago, I took Camber shopping for a Christmas dress and was hard pressed to find something in her size that wasn't strapless, sleeveless, or off the shoulder. A quick glance at the objects dangling from the hangers in the women's dress department at the mall revealed where girls' clothing designers get their inspiration.

Sleeveless holiday dresses are great, if you happen to live along the equator. For all of us lucky souls who are fortunate to live in climates where the temperature hovers just above freezing throughout the month of December, the sleeveless dress is an open invitation for frostbite. In my house, it's also an invitation to employ one's resourcefulness in devising a way to make this year's specimen--a red and black plaid number--functional.

My daughter's solution--a pink and yellow flower-print Easter sweater--was not my first choice, nor my second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth. Camber looked ridiculous in the sweater...but significantly less ridiculous, I reasoned, than walking around Philadelphia in the dead of winter without it.

P.S. Some of you may be wondering why I didn't just buy a sweater to go over the sleeveless dress in the first place. I would have, if there were any to be found. The absence of costly and preferably bejeweled matching cover-ups for sleeveless dresses is yet another great and hitherto unsolved mystery of the modern world. Maybe you can help.