I just keep shopping.

I went to Peeble's last night to buy a basic skirt and a basic pair of trousers. I came home with a basic skirt, a basic pair of trousers, and three dresses. But they are totally amazing dresses.

One is a short, very mod little empire frock in a black/purple wooly paisley. It will look cute with tights and some of my new pointy-toed flats.

Another one is a knee-length, black/white A-line sweater dress that looks a lot more expensive than it is. It will look fantastic with black boots, chunky black/white bangles, and one of my many fabulous black hats.

The third one is a red sweater chemise with an oversized cowl neckline, and I bought it, because it reminds me of a fabulous red sweater dress that I had in college. In fact, I think I can trace the birth of my signature style, if I can be said to have a signature style, to that sweater dress.

I grew up in a house where pretty clothes were valued. My mother loved pretty clothes, and my father was a clothes horse. It didn't hurt that they were both very attractive, slender, dark-haired, dark-eyed people, and therefore could wear pretty much anything well. I was always a chubby kid, but I picked up my love of pretty clothes from my parents.

We were fairly poor when I was a little girl, at best lower-lower-middle class, and we lived in a rented four-room house until I was 11, while my parents saved for a house. But my mother could sew, and she sewed for me and for herself, so I always had nice clothes, even if they weren't store-bought. Then my mother went to work for a wholesaler when I was in middle school, and suddenly, we had access to fashionable (if not designer) clothes at wholesale prices.

By the time I was in college, I had a fantastic little wardrobe, and I dressed up for school, which is where the red sweater dress comes in. It was an A-line dress with a fitted turtleneck, and I wore it alone (I was so much thinner then) or with a blue/red/green plaid blazer and a matching plaid tam. When I wore all three pieces together, people oohed and aahed and told me I looked like I had stepped out of Vogue Magazine. And that's all it took. Red has been a signature color in my fall/winter wardrobe every year since I was 19 years old. :-) And, of course, hats...