Dress for Success Your Way ║ Hosted by The Mrs. & Jenny McCarthy at 30 Rock
They were head to toe in glittering dresses and stilettos. Faces painted with Chanel, smiles and hands manicured to glowing perfection. Their perfume wafting delicately against each other, holding up the hairsprayed highlights of their beautiful salon hairstyles. Name brands were couture and your garment’s worth reflected your own.
I was invited to a very special red carpet event hosted by the charitably ☆ The MRS and Jenny McCarthy. The Mother’s Day Celebration: a benefit for Dress for Success — held at The Weather Room at 30 Rock (the top of the rock – one of the most beautiful views in the city).
I thought about that term before I arrived at the event. “Dress For Success.”
What does that mean?
People Magazine was going to be attending to capture the event and I knew that the photos they took on this red carpet of the outfits and the people would be reflective of the meaning of that statement. These individuals were “successful,” therefore, what they wore represented success.
–12 HOURS EARLIER–
I had just come back from Florida that morning working with conservation groups, most notably volunteering with Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge. The women (both named Debbie) who ran the place were indeed successful at doing it. Their suntanned faces beamed with every shovelful of dirt they threw to make new habitats for the animals they rescued. They joyfully chuckled as they fed baby birds wet dogfood by hand and rubbed the stinky but soft underbellies of newborn possums who needed to be burped.
Their day ended with sweat and soiled shirts. Their salaries are technically “stipends” so even if desired affording luxury couture clothing and jewelry was unlikely. Their success was measured by life and death of their charges and they were ecstatic to give everything they had to make a difference.
If you wanted to dress for their job or their “success,” you didn’t wear a cocktail dress and heels. Heck, anything beyond a minor blemish remover is superfluous makeup it’s just going to come off. Perfume is not allowed around the fragile baby animals. For them, dressing to be successful at their job meant dressing to get dirty, to be comfortable, to be able to breathe, and when a fox or bobcat gets a bit aggressive – dressing to move fast.
I thought about this, gnawed on an espresso cup over this, and sweated it out as I dragged my luggage around the city from an errand to bother with my friend Farrah Krenek. After 8 hours of sitting on it, I packed away the expensive outfit tailored for me and gifted by Sergio Alain Barrios (obvious shout out here because he is incredible and does many of my red carpet looks).
And then … in order to represent appropriately other professional dreams of success – I showed up in a denim onesie with the plan to buy and return. No makeup, no product in my hair, converse sneakers, no accessories,and all of the awkward charm I could muster.
My friend Farrah got greeted enthusiastically as they checked the list for her at 30 Rock (Top of the Rock). They asked if I was her plus one. (I was on the list). The intern stared at my name on the list, then back at me and said “Oh. Wow. Well I guess supermodels don’t want to be outdone by their clothing!” she laughed.
We went up the elevator, I still had my luggage, including a tent strapped to my bag, gripped in my hands. The tiptoeing glittering people in the elevator with me clung daintily onto their clutches and kept pursing their lips almost nervously. They WERE beautiful.
Coat check relieved me of my luggage, treating my suitcase as if it contained explosives activated by motion- but also as if they had seen full camping gear enter 30 Rock everyday.
I turned the corner and immediately stepped onto the “PINK” carpet. (Red carpet playfully made pink as a nod to girls of course.) I was surrounded by dresses, clutches, gowns, fluffs, and primps.
Then the most lovely thing happened. The host of the evening Ms. Jenny McCarthy said “I love what you’re wearing. It’s smart.” and the band THE MRS (a badass rockband of hot moms who hosted and played their newest single to raise awareness for the good cause) all agreed. It was that moment of grace and acknowledgement that made The MRS and Jenny more beautiful than their garments – and separates stars from self indulgent camera piglets. Despite the occasional looks from others, the “You’re so—brave.” or “Wow … so edgy” comments – the people throwing the event got it. They understood, and in that moment there was an understanding that success is beyond fame. Success is pursuit.
It may never be final. It may never be complete. Success is not a goal.
It’s not good or bad.
It can not be measured in stuff.
It can not be measured in movement.
It can only be measured in opinion.
Being sated. Which means – you measure and define your success.
YOU can be successful. Because only YOU can determine your success.
Success is not a goal. Success is the pursuit. So if you change your mindset and give yourself permission to see the success in what you have right now, then you can technically just BE successful by declaring it so. You judge your own success.
Special thanks to Heather Ashley Grabin founder of aichG ║ Sunday Shades for photography
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