You know when you go to The Hard Rock Café and you see celebrity clothing on display? Well it’s always been a dream of mine to own something like that. This week my dream came true when I got a dress worn by Debbie Gibson. She put some clothing up for sale on her website to benefit various charities. I jumped at the opportunity to own her Alice & Olivia sequin dress…I’m not a fashionista fag so I don’t know Alice or Olivia but Debbie had me at sequins. In my gay opinion, this is the best way for her to make a difference in the world, because charity starts at home…and now it’s in my home.
I’ve been a fan of Debbie’s for three decades. I’ve been lucky enough to see her a bunch of times in concert and performing in plays and musicals. Her appreciation for her fans is obvious. She makes herself available after shows for photos and autographs (which I’ve been lucky enough to take advantage of) as well as interacting with fans on Twitter. Having her as my twends on Twitter is one of the twilites of my Twitter career. If someone isn’t lucky enough to meet her in person, she has a way for fans to mail their memorabilia in for her to sign.
I never took advantage of that, until I got the dress. I put a message on the order asking if it would be possible to get the dress autographed before shipping. Within an hour of placing my order, her people contacted my people (meaning just me, because even my cats won’t work for me) saying of course she’d sign it, “Leave it to Deb to find a way/place to sign it”. I assumed it would take months for the stars to align and for her to have the time. Nope! I had an email a few days later telling me that the dress was on it’s way and when to expect it. Not only was the dress signed but it came with a personally written thank you card. Now that’s a class act!
My plan for the dress is to create a display in the entrance way to my office with it. I just have to find someone selling a photo of Debbie in the dress so I can get it framed (I watch Antiques Roadshow and know with something like this it’s all about the provenance) and a dummy to display the dress on. This dummy tried to put the dress on, for a Who Wore It Best post, but unfortunately Debbie is a lot smaller than I am. I almost had to explain to paramedics, when they showed up to find me laying on the floor with a sequined Alice & Olivia dress bunched up around my muffin top cutting off circulation to the bottom half of my body, to do whatever they needed but don’t damage the dress.