Our Kmart Fashion Challenge

On our way to the checkout at Kmart, our arms loaded with fabric softener, toilet bowl cleaner and makeup foundation, my daughter Natalie glanced at the clothing and said  “Quick.  Pick out the best outfit you can, one that would impress a guy on the first date, and do it two minutes.”  Faster than I could giggle at such a challenge, Natalie disappeared among the racks. She is like that; creative and spontaneous and always ready for an offbeat kind of fun.

Former Charlie’s Angels star Jaclyn Smith lends her name and perhaps her design ideas to some of the clothing at Kmart.  Her name was prominent on the rounds of goods simultaneously pushing spring and bidding farewell to winter with markdowns.

In short fashion, no pun intended, I found two pieces that flatter my boyish figure.  I selected straight, narrow dark-washed jeans, dark enough for evening at a restaurant, and a filmy black drop-waist shirt in sheer cotton. It was the perfect silhouette to show off my slender arms and legs, and still mask the stomach that cannot lie about the four pregnancies I had or the food I love.

Natalie didn’t mention accessories, and without a shopping cart my arms were already taxed holding onto the toilet bowl cleaners, so I didn’t take precious time to walk to the other side of the store in search of shoes or jewelry, however I would have selected black gladiator sandals with grommets if I there were any, and a long large linked chain as a necklace.  The outfit was actually kind of elegant and it was certainly affordable.  Both pieces combined were about $18.00 on sale.

I yelled to Natalie asking if she found something and found her gliding around the other side of the department, her head moving quickly above the rounds like she was on a bike.  She expressed frustration that she couldn’t find anything but suddenly approached me with a very pretty, very long black and white dress that would look like a nightgown on me and a stunner on her.  Natalie and I have different body types; her curves and average height come from her father’s side of the family.   The dress she chose, for $19.99, would have looked gorgeous on her beautiful figure.

In that little ten minute exercise across from the checkouts at Kmart, I learned I have a spirited  daughter who turns the routine into something memorable, I learned you can do worse than get fashionable clothing from Kmart, and I realized if we ever decide to “impress guys”, we’ll likely make a pretty good impression for less than $40.00 for both of us.

Tagged as: fashion, fashion challenge, Kmart, mother daughter