Competition Dress. Already?

I purchased my first competition dress today! Almost all adult figure skaters can empathize with me on this one, finding an adult skating dress is difficult. They are tiny. They are expensive. Most of the designs are either too childish or too ugly. And buying online is a nightmare waiting to happen. I got ridiculously lucky on this one.

When buying my skates a month ago at the Detroit Skating Club I noticed that they had a used dress and skates sale coming up in April. I didn’t think much of it at the time because I didn’t think I’d be competing anytime soon, but when my coach told me I was ready I started shopping for competition dresses online. I didn’t like much of what I was finding and every dress was $150 or more. There was no way I was dropping that much on a dress I hadn’t tried on and fallen in love with, especially since this is a basic skills competition (nothing major...yet). I was beginning to think that I was out of luck until I remembered that the sale was taking place at the DSC.

I got up early on Saturday and headed to the rink to look at the dresses. I went thinking that there was about a 10% chance of me finding something that fit and a 2% chance that I would actually like it. But boy was I wrong. When I asked if they had any adult dresses the woman said they had a ton (this was an overstatement, because there was about half a rack) but nevertheless there were options.

When I began looking at the dresses I knew I wouldn’t find anything. The “larges” looked like x-smalls, there was no way I was going to squeeze into one of those tiny things. After expressing this to the woman who showed me the dresses, she said that her daughter had a similar figure and fit into several small sizes, so I should just give them a try.

I grabbed a few that I thought didn’t look horrible and headed to the room to try them on. Saying that I was shocked that they fit would be an understatement. A couple “smalls” fit and a couple “larges” fit. So, I am not exactly sure if there is a standard sizing system with these things, but I was happy that I had some options. After sending some pictures to my coach and friends, they helped me to decide on one of the dresses.

I never thought I’d be able to squeeze into one of these tiny things. I didn’t think I would find anything decent. I didn’t think I’d find anything cheap. That’s a lot of negativity, but I mean come on. A girl who was a size 14 in a little skating competition dress. Yeah right. Losing weight definitely helped the situation, but even at a size 8  now I didn’t think I’d find anything. Figure skaters are tiny and strong. I am not….yet.

So, overall I am really glad I found a competition dress that I’ve fallen in love with. I got it at a great price and I am looking forward to competing in it come June. And of course, I cannot wait to take pictures in it. I have some of me in the dress now, but I kind of want to treat it like a wedding dress. No one will see it until my competition. Muwahahaha (my awful evil laugh).