New Year's Eve Attire...the space between sexy and slutty

On Saturday, I had an experience that I haven't had in many years. I went shopping with my sister-in-law. I'm fairly certain that the last time we went shopping for anything beyond wedding shoes or housewares was in college, when we were both single and ready to mingle. The tighter, the better. A lot has changed in the years between our excursions. Married, mother of a 2 year old and 1 month old, her closet make-up has probably shifted out of party mode and into adult/mommy-mode, and I, teacher/coach have definitely collected a few pieces of the more classy variety in those lapses of years between our last party-outing, shopping trip. But it's New Year's Eve, second only to Halloween, with regard to the amount of tolerable sexiness, right?  I thought dress shopping for ringing in 2014 would be a no-brainer. We went straight to the place where I had one week prior purchased my sex-kitten, New Year's ensemble. She's gonna love at least ten dresses in here, I thought to myself.  She was in search of a bridesmaids dress for a New Year's Eve wedding. Perimeters, had to be black and had to cover her boobies. Seemed simple enough.

Upon entering sexy dress heaven, I wasted no time and headed straight toward the new arrivals, in search of all-black ''glad rags''. I quickly weeded through the boobilicious numbers that were strictly forbidden, and pulled an eclectic mix of strapless, one shoulder, deep v, halter, spaghetti strap, open back, netted, and lacy numbers. Fringe, buffles, slim fit and poofy bottom, there was absolutely something for everyone in my armfull of hand-selected dresses for her styling pleasure. I proudly presented my discoveries to my sister-in-law but to my dismay, just as quickly as I pulled those beauties, she shot them down. Too short, too tight, too revealing, not enough coverage, not comfortable, her list of objections went on and on. I politely advised her that she should at least try them on. ''You are a little, itty bitty thing, with big boobs. These dresses are going to look great on you'', I encouraged. ''I can't wear dresses like these. I'm a mom.''

Those two sentences sent my mind into a talespin. You can't wear dresses like THESE because you're a mom? Excweeze me? Ever heard of a MILF? I'll leave out the explicit content and stick to the acronym. But is this real? Are these the thoughts that moms out there are having? I can't wear a sexy dress on New Year's because I'm a mom? Is this what I have to look forward to someday? This is complete and total bull$**t. And does it stop with moms? Or is there an age bracket where sexy dresses are no longer deemed acceptable? This idea was 100% disturbing.

We left the store without a sexy LBD and after a couple other strike-outs in various stores, we bought a few baby outfits and headed home. Back at mi casa I pulled my sexy little cocktail dress out of the closet to give it the ole' once over. Strappy, tight, shows some booby, some strategically placed netting...it is a total New Year's Eve dress. But is it too slutty? Even though I'm not a ''mom'', am I dressing innapropriately? Who makes the guidelines for the space between sexy and slutty?

And then I decided.. Me. And my sister-in-law, my mom, my best friend Jaci, Courtney (the Southern Belle), Alison, the leggy brunette, my coworker Lauren, all of us with extremely different styles, bodies and ages, all of us making the decision to wear what we love on New Year's Eve, and every other day, regardless of our age and titles. The most important thing is to feel good about what you are wearing and wear it well. Dress for what makes you feel good about your body. And don't worry about what anybody else thinks about it. Because ultimately, you are your biggest critic. If you love it, wear it!  As for me, I'll be strutting my stuff in my ''smidge above prostitute'' style, New Year's number. Because I LOVE ''ho dresses'' (as my friends and I affectionately call our party outfits). But I believe a more appropriate description of my 2014 New Year's Eve LBD would be ''classy escort'' style dress.. with flats on... because I'm far too old to try and be cutesy in heels ;). (And I recently made the cutesy heels mistake in Vegas. Lesson learned).