Girl vs. Guy Hot: Who Do You Dress For?

by Maureen Dempsey

Do you want to know what I was going to get you?” my husband asked.

A week before our one-year wedding anniversary, we had decided to pool our money to buy a living room chair. (Romantic? Not so much. But having a place to sit is way sexier than a dozen roses—and lasts longer, too.) It was the most rhetorical question I had ever heard. Of course I wanted to know.

“Do you remember that dress at Club Monaco? The one with the black top and the white bottom?” he asked me. Why, yes. The dress with little cap sleeves and an empire waist that flowed with a perfect fluid drape. How could I forget it? It was the type of clothing you “visit” in anticipation of owning. And I had. Several times.

Yet my husband’s non-purchase came as no surprise to me. We’ve all been there before: Boy hands you gift. You untie the ribbon, brush away the tissue paper to reveal…mesh lingerie or a slinky, sexpot number. Yet this gift was different. This wasn’t a dress that would turn male heads, let alone make a man backtrack to buy it.

It was, in short, a girl dress. The type that says, demurely, “I go to brunch with the gals—and never in heels.” The fact that he considered investing in a dress that shrouded any hint of my sexuality seemed a testament to his love. Seriously. What. A. Guy.