DOMAP.  Nice acronym, riiight?  I love acronyms, in case you hadn’t noticed.  Or as I prefer to say it, ICYHN. 

DOMAP stands for “Doesn’t Owe Me A Penny“.  We all have items like this in our wardrobe.  It can range anywhere from a $10 cami that you literally wear under everything and has still lasted you a year, to a $400 dress that has been systematically serving as your ‘go-to’ dress for a cocktail party, wedding, birthday dinner.  The one that makes you feel good no matter what, and is classic enough that even though at the time you bought it, you felt like… “Hmm.  $400.  That’s a lot.” But 5 years and 25 occasions later, you’re thinking “That dress is so DOMAP”

Here are 2 such dresses, as far as I’m concerned.  Both black lace, but inherently different.

First, the Designer’s Remix Collection aptly named Lacedress (I’m not making that up.  That’s the style name).

It’s gorgeous.  It has a draped neck, with a fitted body and keyhole back neck opening.  It’s quite a heavy, textured lace, so in person, it has a bit more body to it, which is one of the reasons that the front drape works so well.  I also love the scalloped hem.  It retails for $330, so it’s on the pricier side, but is still reasonable enough for a DOMAP, because let’s face it, you and I both know that you are going to be able to keep pulling this out event after event, switching your accessories, shoes, and lipstick colour to fit the trend of that particular season, but relying on the classic look of this dress to transcend whatever passing waves of fashion are rolling through (do you like that metaphor? Wait.  Is that a metaphor?)

Next up, the Velvet Nadeen dress.

This one is a little more ‘day-to-night’-ish.  It’s a stretch lace, much lighter than the DRC version, with a cap sleeve and a scalloped hem.  The underdress is jersey and there’s no zipper, so it’s a pretty easy fit.  It retails for $210.  I picture this as one of those dresses that somehow manages to make it into every suitcase you pack for the next 3 years.  Going to Greece for a wedding in July?  Throw it in.  Heading to Tremblant for the Christmas holidays?  In it goes.  NYC for a weekend? Yup, it’s in there.  Again, it can be made to fit every season with updated accessories, and can even be worn with flip flops.  (The ultimate test). 

The Velvet Nadeen dress comes in at an easy price to justify for a DOMAP ($210), but don’t mistake that to automatically mean that it is a better choice than the DRC Lacedress.  Not at all.  With DRC you are paying a bit more for the structure of the item and the quality of the fabric, so to switch up a trusted expression, it’s a dress of a different colour (as opposed to a horse of a… oh forget it… you knew that).  As it happens, it’s NOT, in fact, a different colour.  So technically, that is a complete FAIL on the expression switch-up front, but I think I made my point. 

Both of these dresses are completely and utterly DOMAP.

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Brands, Dresses, This Just In by Marnie