The trustee overseeing her case objected. He argued that Mrs. C. had run up these debts with no reasonable expectation of paying them back, and more pointedly, that the items themselves were She was a homemaker, not a diplomat or a stage actress. A simple wool dress would keep her warm. A silk one with a train? That was a luxury.
From a sustainability perspective, most of our dress orders are frivolous. The average garment is worn only 7 times before being discarded. A “frivolous” dress in 1887 was a silk gown you wore for years. A “frivolous” dress today is a $15 fast-fashion polyester slip you wear once for an Instagram photo and then send to a landfill, where it will outlive your great-grandchildren. frivolous dress order
If you buy a couture gown the week after filing for separation, you might have to reimburse the marital estate for it. We cannot discuss this term without acknowledging its sharp, gendered edge. There is no historical equivalent for a “frivolous watch order” or a “frivolous golf club order.” The term emerged in a era when women’s spending was seen as inherently suspect, their desires dismissed as vain and foolish. The trustee overseeing her case objected
More Than Just a Fancy Gown: Unpacking the “Frivolous Dress Order” had run up these debts with no reasonable
We’ve all been there. You’re having a rough week. Maybe a bad day at work, a fight with a friend, or just the relentless gray of February. So you do what any rational 21st-century human does: you open your phone. Within three clicks, a silky, emerald-green slip dress is winging its way to your apartment. You tell yourself you need it. But do you really?
In the eyes of the law (and a few particularly stern bankruptcy judges), that dress might not be a need. It might be something far more damning:
So buy the beautiful dress. Just buy it with eyes wide open. And for heaven’s sake, wear it more than once. Have you ever made a frivolous dress purchase? What’s your personal “line” between a treat and a mistake? Let me know in the comments.