Find a dress for the black tie event

I got a dress the day before; it was hard to find anything acceptable much less desirable. I basically settled for a dress that wasn’t what I really wanted. It was okay, just not ideal. Part of the problem was that many of the stores didn’t carry anything that fit me. Some stores had nothing below a size 6, and the size 6s were ginormous. I have an old size 6 gown at home that still fits me fine (I didn’t wear that one because I wore it to a formal right before this one, all the same people were going to be there, social faux pas blah blah blah) but I now can’t buy a 2 at the stores because they hang off of me like sacks. I didn’t see anything below 2 at any store, so I settled for a smaller 2 that was still too big. I’m not all that big (“vertically challenged” haha) but I’m not super-skinny-mini. I wonder what super-skinny-minis do for clothing—shop in the kids section, I suppose. I don’t know that you can get gowns from the girls section though. I saw a skinny-mini at the black-tie event and her dress hung off of her to the point she was physically holding it on all night. Yikes. I guess my semi-loose dress problem wasn’t so bad after all. At least it stayed on by itself.

I haven’t bought a formal dress in 9 years. I hope the styles/colors in right now aren’t too horrible. I don’t know what dress size I am these days. When I went a few years between jeans shopping, I found I had to buy a smaller size, not because I had changed (at that time, I still fit into my worn old jeans of the same size #) but because the jeans had changed.

I want something nice, not too young; appropriate for someone over 30 but also not boring and blah.