A Story of One Dress

When coronavirus arrives in the United Kingdom, the little black dress becomes anxious. Inspired by the online stoic philosophy class It attends during the first lockdown, It starts playing a series of games that set the little black dress on the journey of discovering Itself and the world struck by coronavirus.

 In the first game, called “In Search of Beauty”, the little black dress climbs a Plato’s ladder of beauty. Confined to Its small flat in North West London, the little black dress is determined to experience beauty on four levels: physical, mental, intellectual and absolute. The little black dress seeks to experience physical beauty through five senses: sight, taste, hearing, touch and smell. It finds mental beauty in human response to the coronavirus crisis. Intellectual beauty for the little black dress is represented by human intellectual endeavours. Having climbed the three levels, It finally gets a glimpse of absolute beauty.

 In the second game, called “The Game of Senses”, the little black dress partially ascends a Plato’s ladder together with Alexander, a man whom It meets on a dating app. They agree to meet each other virtually through each sense: five senses, five challenges and one date in reality after the lockdown to see how accurate the images they have constructed are.

The third game, “Hypomnemata Game”, is inspired by the Ancient Greek word ‘hypomnema’, which is translated as a reminder. Essentially, it is a memory of things read, heard or thought that is designed for rereading and later reflection. The little black dress decides to use the stoic principle and to document the most important ideas It learns during this unusual time; so that, when life returns to normal, It can revisit the ‘notes’. As part of the game the little black dress buys Itself a present, which represents something important It had learnt during the month and also captures the main mood of it.

 “The Story of One Dress” is shared by ksquared on the blogging platform Connect, after she accidentally comes across the little black dress on the blogging platform. Printed on a glossy paper with numerous photographs this story tells of beauty and humanity that continue to exist even in most difficult times.

Contemporary fiction, personal growth, pandemic themes, humanity and human values.