holy grails

even though i would love to go out & drop hundreds on fancy new clothes - & by go out i mean spend a couple hours placing orders for things on my amazon wishlist & on gilt - before going off to school, necessity has taken precedence. not that the word necessity doesn't point to the absurd ideal of necessity that exists here in westchester, but there you have it. i've purchased little white socks, black tights, black shorts, leggings, & new underwear. i have all of the things i really "need" in order to go off to school. but sometimes even the plainest of necessities are impossible for me to find. i end up obsessed with the searches, keeping very particular styles in mind, & they become endless quests, i the archetypal medieval heroine searching for the holy grail.
why discuss this now? today i finally found replacement shoes for my favourite flats. clearly this was imperative as i need shoes that are not heeled to wear around campus. the shoes i need of replacement: black patent-leather peep-toe 1/2" heeled flats with little bows by steve madden purchased for probably $60 in 2007 or 2008. despite the peep-toe, i wear them year-round & the plastic on the heels began peeling off in ugly chunks last year. they do everything a shoe should do: fit snugly, have padded - not flat - soles, make noise when i step, elevate me slightly, have fabric detailing sans metal or colour, & are shiny. so, short of re-purchasing them off e-bay (which was a viable, although expensive, option a week ago), i performed extremely delicate searches on websites like zappos, shoes.com, & department stores' websites... to no avail! finally, on a whim, i google searched "black patent flat" & the google shopping tab took me to newport news, a clothing website that caters to 30-something women & is very economically reasonable. (i have a pair of lace-up "granny booties" from newport news i bought three years ago for $35 that are still in excellent shape.) there they were! the perfect replacement. & for $19! you want it, you got it. the shoes arrived in the mail today & fit perfectly. after four months, grail found.
but there is another simple, black item that is haunting me. i am in dire need - dire. really. - of a short, drop-waist black shift with sleeves. not long sleeves, but short or 3/4-length sleeves. not of a heavy material - i'm envisioning silk - & sans detailing of any kind. i want it to sit on my shoulders like a smock, accentuating nothing. this is hard to find for a multitude of reasons:
1) i found exactly what i wanted in june, but urban outfitters, without my knowledge, cancelled the order due to a random price change. by the time i had learned this, recovered from my resentment, & decided to re-order it, it was sold out. having an ideal image in mind that was at some point palpable is almost worse.
2) i don't want to spend a lot. this, for obvious reasons, hurts the hunt.
3) it is really hard to find "little black dresses" that aren't form-fitting to a degree. people are usually looking for that feature in their little black dresses.
4) i rarely find dresses that, even when designed to fall loosely, do not accentuate any part of my body. this may sound like something for which i should be thankful & about which i should stop complaining, but in this case, i'm complaining.
moral: be less obsessive & more open. but if you happen upon a dress that meets this description, please let me know. i'll probably be searching for a long time because i can't just give up now.