The Gatsby Dress

It happened again didn't it. It was an accident, a bloody awful accident. I just ducked in because I had 20 minutes until the bus came and I thought I might see some inspiration for this years summer fashion, but as soon as I walked through those glass poster plastered doors I saw it: I can only describe the first glance as full of sparkle and daintiness, I was drawn in, only to this, this dress that hung on a hanger in the middle of everything else, hiding shyly behind a different one but I noticed that one. It was floor length, sweeping like an enchanted lake tightly in a silhouette but ending in an almost fish tail, I was sure I'd seen this dress before, as the shimmering metallic tail of a mermaid, I thought for a moment that surely this had come from a water-nymph of some Celtic river in a long forgotten legend. It was green, almost green, almost blue but most definitely more green. So demure with its capped sleeves and modest high neckline, it struck me as being rather Jane Austen, regency with its length and cut but the generous flood of beads and sequins making the slight lace heavy was much more 1920's...where? where in time am I thinking of? What moment has this piece captured?
and then it hit me...The Great Gatsby! well of course, that movie has inspired the fashion lines everywhere and this one beautiful creation had made its way here. I almost died when I read that it was £120. I have never in my life spent so much on an item of clothing, not ever! I walked away depressed, I looked back like a lost lover in war time and I felt like the dress was glaring resentfully back. That dress wanted to leave with me, it wanted to be carried out over my arm. It was the sort of creation one can only appreciate face to face, hand on fabric. I was truly very rather blue as I walked out of that shop. That was my Gatsby dress and I walked away from it, and I won't feel the same for a while.