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Previously: Dressember Days 1-2, Dressember Days 3-5, Dressember Days 6-8.

Me, a pale, curly haired woman with glasses, smiling in an outdoor setting. I have my hands on my hips and am wearing a black knee-length dress.

Welcome to Day 11! It’s been quite a few days in my Dressember fundraising campaign, and we’ve jumped up to $572. Wow. Just wow. I’ve upped the goal to $750 and it looks like we might even make it. I’ve really appreciated all the nice words to me personally, but it’s a pretty easy and fun task on my end. Thanks so much for contributing and spreading the word!

A reminder as to what it’s all about: I decided to put my experiments in and thinking around femininity and feminism towards a good cause, and signed up for Dressember, in which one is sponsored to wear dresses for a month in support of a women’s charity. I’m raising funds for the Hamlin Fistula® Relief and Aid Fund, which is the Australian representative of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. Fistulas are obstetric holes that develop during obstructed pregnancies, and they disproportionately affect youth and those who don’t have sufficient nutrition. They’re almost non-existent in the Western world, but thousands of cases develop each year in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital is the only one of its kind in Ethiopia, and cures 93% of cases. It provides a home and employment for those with the other 7%, and is also training midwives so that fistulas will be minimised in Ethiopia in future. I’ve been passionate about this work for many years, and would appreciate anything you can donate towards my month-long fundraising campaign.

Me, a pale, curly haired woman with glasses, smiling in an outdoor setting. I am wearing a red scarf over a formal red dress. The dress is about knee-length, and has several layers of frills formed by plastic piping through the bottom of semi-sheer layers of the dress.Friday’s dress was one of the most versatile items in my wardrobe. It’s good for day or night, whatever the season, and I can dress it up or dress it down as needed. You can’t see it in this picture, but it has a bow in the back. It’s dressy, dramatic black. It’s my dress of why, yes, I did go to drama school, let me pompously quote Oscar Wilde. I wear this one all the time.

My dress from December 10th is always good for a grin. I’ve been saving it all month. Red is gorgeous and bright, and these frills are ridiculous in their glory. It also has one of the best stories in all my wardrobe. I spent probably about an hour trying to justify getting this dress I didn’t have an occasion for, but it was just too amazing to pass up. Especially on sale. And, let’s face it, when was I going to find anything like it ever again? I was bemoaning the lack of occasion on Twitter when Ariane said she’d throw a cocktail party to which I could wear it. This is how one knows one has friends. The scarf is the legacy of what has become known in my head as The Greatest Sale of All Time, one I stumbled across at the end of 2009. The scarf was marked down from $59.95 to just a couple of dollars. I think that shop had been trying their luck.

Me, a pale, curly haired woman with glasses, smiling on a pier. A beach is visible in the background. I am weaing a floral dress with a bow tied around the waist.

Today’s dress is another one that used to be my mother’s, but she only had it very briefly before she gave it to me! I have never been one for florals, but I became instantly attached to this dress. I’m glad the weather decided to take a turn for the better today – although it is beginning to thunder as I write this. And yes, I do seem to have a strange inability to stay away from the beach in summer, but that is the price one pays for living on the Australian coast.

That’s it! Please donate to the campaign and/or spread the word.

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