The Power of Red

There is something about a woman in red that commands attention.

I learned this the first time when I was in my mid-20s and was working for a Really Big Oil Company. My department had a Christmas party lunch so I decided to wear a red business suit. I had never worn it as a suit before; I bought it so that I could wear the skirt and jacket separately. But since it was a holiday party, I thought I would be festive.

Coincidentally, my co-worker wore a red suit to the party, too. She and I hung out together and we were stunned by how much attention we got. All sorts of men from our department were saying hello, chatting, etc. Nothing was inappropriate; it was just so odd that these men who rarely said anything to us in day-to-day work life were suddenly noticing us. Including our boss's boss's boss whom we had both met in meetings but we were lowly employees so there was no reason for him to remember us. Indeed, he was visibly surprised when we answered his question if we had both just joined the company (we'd only been in his department for three or four years!). The topper to the Power of Red that day was when the Chairman of the Really Big Oil Company popped by the party for a bit. Mind you, this was The Top Guy of a huge corporation. There were probably 150 people at the party. And whom did he stop and chit chat with? Yep, me and Eileen in our red suits. We laughed all afternoon about that.

I had totally forgotten about The Power of Red, though, when I bought a red dress in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. It was an impulse buy after finding a store that was just too much fun. Rob was with me and his reaction to the dress made it obvious it was leaving the store with us. It is a fantastically fun dress. It is cute and flirty and I feel awesomely girly in it!

We went out that night to see Penn & Teller's magic show. Although I had packed a nice skirt and blouse, I decided to wear my new red dress. I paired it with tan fishnet stockings and black heels that are sort of retro-hip. I felt great but also knew I was totally doing my own thing because that is NOT how women dress at night in Las Vegas. By Vegas standards, my red dress was a church lady dress -- it is not tight on every curve, it goes to my knees, the skirt is poofy, and although there is a little peek-a-boo cut in the front and the back is modestly open, it is not very revealing.

And you know what? I got sincere compliments all night.

I got lots of appreciative looks from men. But they were respectful looks, not leers. And I got gushing compliments from women -- admittedly, none were wearing Hooker Heels -- and I was quizzed about where I got my dress. At one point, I was standing in a casino waiting for Rob.  An older man stopped and said, "I love your dress. I saw you earlier. You just don't see dresses like that very often. You look beautiful." He stumbled over his words a bit, and said them with such quiet modesty that it was obvious to me he was simply paying me a wonderful compliment without any overtones.

All night that night, I could tell people were looking at me. I stood taller, I walked with more confidence, I smiled more. It was this amazing thing that just fed on itself. I will admit, I was a bit self-conscious at first since I typically hate the idea of being the center of attention. But once I realized the attention was good attention, I decided to own it and ended up having an incredible evening.

Oh, and that picture with Penn from my April 3 post? I had been standing off to the side while all sorts of people asked for his autograph and took pictures with him. He looked over in my direction any number of times. I waited for the crowd to thin a bit and then approached him. As I did, he made eye contact and smiled big and raised his eyebrows. Again -- nothing inappropriate at all but definitely more of a reaction than I had seen him give anyone else. If I had been wearing the black skirt and top I had packed for the trip instead, I am sure I would not have gotten that reaction from him.

As I watched the younger girls parade around Las Vegas in their teeny tiny ȕber tight dresses that left little to the imagination, I smiled to myself how much I enjoy being a woman with some life experience. A woman who understands that sometimes less (revealing) is more (intriguing) and that the sexiest thing about a woman is her confidence. And that there are few better ways to boost that confidence than to wear a red dress.