Fabulous Las Vegas

Oh, Vegas, where do I even start, you crazy, amazing place, you?

Actually, I think I’ll probably start with Vegas itself some other time, if it’s OK with you guys. Because the thing is, Vegas is an assault on the senses, really. We were there for two nights, but it somehow felt like much longer – and, knowing me, those two nights will translate to WAY more than 48 hours worth of blog reading, won’t they? You know what they say: what happens in Vegas gets blogged about in excruciating detail! Or something like that, anyway.

I’ll have another Vegas post for you next week sometime, is what I’m trying to say. Today, though, I mostly just want to talk about this dress. Which, no, I didn’t choose because it matches the ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign. Not saying I wouldn’t have done that if I’d thought of it, mind you, but it really was just a happy co-incidence, pinky swear. No, this is the dress I went home and ordered online after having no luck finding it (or, indeed, any of the other things I’d gone there for) in the Pinup Girl Store. I had to have it overnighted so it would get there on time, and honestly, by the time I’d taken into account the expedited shipping and the California state tax, it cost me almost as much as it would have if I’d had it sent to the UK. So basically I spent the entire year refusing to order from the PUG website to save myself some money (“I’ll just go to the store when I’m in LA!” I told myself, optimistically…), only to get to LA… and end up ordering from the PUG website. GOD.

Still, it was definitely worth it, because not only do I absolutely love it, it also turned out to be the most-complimented dress I’ve ever worn, seriously. Right after taking these photos, we headed off to Fremont Street for a wander (and also so that Terry and my dad could ride the scary zipline there), and so many people stopped me to say something nice about this dress that it actually started to get quite embarrassing. I hesitate to even mention this, because I know it sounds obnoxiously braggy, but let me just say that this had absolutely nothing to do with me and my sunscreen-sticky hair (I bought the worst sunscreen ever the day before we left for Vegas, and suffice to say my hair paid the sticky, sticky price…), and everything to do with how NICE American people are, and how willing they are to compliment complete strangers.

I mean, I know there are exceptions to this, obviously, but I’ve been noticing it for years, and in various different cities and states, so my conclusion is that it’s not me, it really is them. It’s just one of those interesting differences between UK and US culture, and while there are lots of nice British people, too, having lived in the the UK my entire life, I’ve had someone compliment my outfit exactly ONCE in all that time. And it was an American girl, here on holiday. (It was this outfit, seeing as you’re obviously really interested…) Don’t get me wrong, people in the UK aren’t normally rude, exactly – it’s not like I get a lot of nasty comments from passers-by, or anything like that – but they’re rarely complimentary, either, and if they see someone wearing something even slightly out of the “norm”, they’re more likely to just stare incredulously, than to say something nice about it. They’ll leave you in no doubt that they see you as “weird”, and that they look down on you for it, and it’s a really horrible feeling.

In the US, meanwhile, people just walk up to you and tell you they love your hair, or your dress, or your shoes, or whatever. (Or they pay no attention to you at all, which is also fine by me…) It happened to me almost every day on holiday, and as I said, it’s happened to me ONE TIME here at home, so it really stands out, and makes me so much more likely to wear the things I love, without worrying that people are going to be constantly sniggering. I’m not saying that people should be randomly complimenting me all the the time, obviously, or that I deserve praise from anyone, because I definitely don’t: I just think that, well, it’s nice to be nice, isn’t it? I know this probably sounds strange coming from a fashion blogger, but I worry a lot about how people will react to me and what I’m wearing (Mostly because here at home, they tend not to react positively…), and it was just refreshing to not have to think about it, or to know that the reaction was more likely to be, “Oh, you’re wearing a dress, cool!”, rather than, “You’re wearing a DRESS? Who do you think you ARE?” Which sums up the mentality of a lot of people back home, I think.

Um, that went off on a bit of a tangent, didn’t it? TL;DR – I love this dress, and I’m going to make it my mission to compliment strangers on the street from now on: because just one kind word can make someone’s day…

WEARING: PinUp Girl Clothing ‘Jenny’ dress in orange border print; River Island shoes; sunglasses c/o Unique Vintage