My one-night stand… with a dress

How to get ready for a red carpet event … in Charlotte.

But the thing is… it’s Charlotte. Your dress may not end up splattered in the pages of US Weekly next to Kim Kardashian with the caption: “Who wore it best?” with some not-so-smart-ass commentary from Joan Rivers. However, although there are a variety of semi-formal and black tie events in Charlotte, each one is guaranteed to have at least some of the same faces — thus the same eyes seeing your dress. Not that it really matters what other people think… Recycling is good for the environment and your wallet…

But there’s nothing better than getting all dolled up and debuting a new dress — it still has the same allure of playing dress-up and make-believe as a child. And I just make believe it’s a real red-carpet event.

So many events — so little dresses (and typically these dresses are literally little). Last year, former Paid to Party girl Sarah Aarthurn and I wore the same dress from L.A. East on New Year’s Eve… and we had to deliberately plan not to both wear it for Bartender’s Ball. But there’s a way to increase your wardrobe repertoire without increasing your credit card bill.

While I was in Lotus looking for a dress to wear to Second String Santa, I told the owner Effie Loukas, that I should have a stock option in her store with how much money I spend there — then she told me that she rents her closet! And she essentially has one of everything that’s ever been on the Lotus rack — so, I went over to her place to play dress up.

I went into this closet …

… and came out with this entire ensemble – shoes, dress, and earrings: $30

And everytime someone complimented my dress I had no problem telling them… “Thanks, it’s a rental!”

With New Years and Bartender’s Ball coming up – hit up Effie’s closet for her “Just for the Night” collection. Contact her at effie@lotuslook.com

This article appears in Dec 1-7, 2009.