Find Me a Dress

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find me a beautiful red evening dress. Preferably one that I can buy. You have one month in which to do so. You see, I'm preparing for the Newbery banquet with a sloth-like speed, and for such a banquet I need a dress. Preferably red. Ideally silk, but that's just me being dreamy.

I'm a little frightened to ask you all this because y'all are notoriously generous. Really REALLY generous, and I don't want to come into work tomorrow to find twenty potential red silk dresses overnighted to my desk. None of that now. I just need some shopping advice. Where does one go to get a pretty red dress for a reasonable price?

Def: Reasonable price = Affordable on a children's librarian budget.

As I live in Manhattan, you would think locating a red dress would be simple. Nuh-uh. It's springtime here in NYC and that means beige. Beige, cantaloupe, and cream. Red? Good luck with that. I found a close contender at an H&M near my workplace but it proved to be particularly pinkish up close (tarnation!).

So what are your suggestions? Remember: It has to be something I can wear to a banquet. No barbecue skorts. And as my "shopping" is normally limited to gleefully sorting through the leavings of my friend in the fashion mag industry, I bow to your superior judgment on this one. What should I do?