In trying to get my head straight, I look at the picture of me, age 3.5, again. It is not a dress, it is called a jumper. The same as the picture of me at a year old, it is a jumper. It has a front bib, no sides or back, and likely straps cross in the back, and then over the shoulder. Mine has a narrow back piece until it separates into straps by the neck. The thing is no sleeves or sides above the skirt. My denim one has a pocket on the bib, and adjustable straps.
There I go again, getting too detailed. As if I need to explain what a jumper is. I could just call it a bibbed skirt. The point I am trying to get to is that I have no problem wearing a skirt, but uncomfortable wearing a dress.
My mother did not like it when I put on a dress I found when I was a teenager. It got hung up in my closet and gathered up with my other clothes when I moved. I have a dress hanging in my closet that I wore 50 years ago. It is too small for me now. My Christmas dress and Thanksgiving dress have never been worn outside. I could say they are holiday dresses, worn on special occasions.
I don't know if my mother made any threats about me wearing dresses, or something my dad said about cross dressers.
Then there is the fashion police, dresses are to be worn with thigh high socks and high heel shoes. I wonder if that was my dad's idea. Back again to the Tom Peeping movie, which suggested, that the only reason for a man to wear a dress was to get into ... Women's underwear is a fetish, dresses are a perversion.
Unrelated, but just a thought I just caught, as a child I wanted cowboy boots because they had high heels.
I never did get my Annie Oakley costume.
My tops are size 16, my skirts are size 12, the waist is at the wrong location on the dress. A size 16 dress is too big around the waist.
Michelle