Taking Twitter Shopping

I am headed to Washington, D.C. today for most of the week for work.  Tonight, I have a "black tie optional" event to attend along with several of my work colleagues.  And when I say "work colleagues" I mean the people who run the place.  So this isn't a night to pull out a party dress from my 20s.


Yes, I had nothing to wear.


So I decided to take Twitter shopping.


I finally found myself at Macy's at the Mall of America.  Loaded with an armful of dresses and my Blackberry, checking my pride at the door, I headed into the dressing room.  As I tried them on, I took quick photos of them and shared them on Twitter asking for feedback.


Never did I imagine so many people would bother to weigh in.

It went something like this:


Option 1?

Feedback was lukewarm on that one.  Anywhere from "nice and classy" to "the cap sleeves look odd."  People, however, did like that it was a color.

Moving on to Option 2:

This one was rolling along.  Getting great feedback.  And I did like it.  But I did wonder if, given that whole sitting at an event with the senior leadership at work, if this was going to be the best fit.  When someone called it "hot" I was pretty sure my gut check was right.  As much as I like "hot" this was probably not the night to attempt that.

And while everyone else was weighing in publicly, Brian decided to take his comments to direct messages.  Which meant, with a surprising number of new tweets coming in, I wasn't aware they were there and wasn't seeing them.

And let's just say his opinion was not with the majority on this one.

On went Option 3 for opinions:

Which was the lowest vote getter.  I agree.  The fabric was too casual and it was just a dress.

I went back to the racks and found two more options.

Option 4:

And Option 5:

I have to say, this was the most fun I have had shopping by myself, well, ever.  Because I wasn't by myself.  It was like I had a group of 20 friends with different opinions and perspectives in the dressing room with me (in the least creepy way possible).  People were complimentary.  They were honest (perhaps even more so than they would have been in person, which I appreciated).  They were funny.

The next day, I went back and bought one of the dresses.  And also asked for opinions on the shoes. 

"Left or Right?"

Tonight, I put it all together and will share where I landed.