Kimberly Perry Chooses Vintage Ralph Lauren for CMAs

Part of the pressure that accompanies any awards show is finding the perfect dress, but as Wednesday night's CMA Awards approaches, the Band Perry's Kimberly Perry is almost ready for the red carpet.

"With all these award shows, I always keep my eyes open and sometimes we'll snag a couple dresses at a time and hang on to them for the next award show," the petite blonde tells The Boot. "I hate shopping when I have to, so we've had this one for a couple of months now. It's a Ralph Lauren vintage dress. I'm so excited about it."

Kimberly describes the dress as "a cream lace halter gown" from 1905. "All that they did was change the clasps at the top," she says of the antique garment. "They freshened those up, but it's the same underlining and all that. Ralph has an antique and a vintage collection, so both Ralph and his staff go out and they hunt through antique stores and go through Europe. They find antique pieces that he reconstructs and then they sell them as Ralph Lauren vintage. So it's a 1905 dress that they collected."

Kimberly credits one of her stylists with finding the gown and bringing it to her attention. "There are two warehouses that Ralph has in the Hamptons that are just full of antique clothes, home pieces and stuff like that. Apparently it's just amazing. One of our stylists actually works at Ralph Lauren, the New York store, and they have a ton of vintage pieces in the Hamptons, so it was a dress that he pulled from the antique collection."

The singer cites Alexander McQueen and Ralph Lauren as her favorite designers, and admits to a particular affinity for Ralph because of the comfort factor. "He's all about being comfortable and that's what I love about Ralph," she enthuses. "He's so classy. He's great."

Kimberly enjoys finding just the right dress for each occasion, but tries not to get stressed out in the process. "Because there are so many events, it sort of takes the pressure off," she admits. "It's not like your wedding dress where there's only one that you'll have your whole life. We just try to pick up pieces as we see them. I'm a little bit of a tomboy, but I like to dress up. I feel like everything that I wear has to have a little bit of a rugged sensibility, but in an evening sense, so that's what I love about this dress. Ralph is one of the best at that. Whether it's wearing an evening dress and throwing in a leather belt around it or something like that, we try to mix it up."

Surprisingly, the beautiful singer/songwriter doesn't think she wears dresses well. "I don't look great in a lot of dresses," she says, "so when I'm in one and it's like okay I can walk around in this for an evening, that's what tells us that it's the one. If I'm not going to trip on it and I'm going to be comfortable, then that's the right dress."

At press time, the hunt was still on for the right shoes. "No, I've not found shoes," she tells The Boot. "I've got to find some gold ones that would fit this particular dress. The platform shoes are way in this year, but they are just too bulky for this dress. My mom found these shoes with like a 6-inch heel without a platform, and I'm like I'm not standing on my toes all night long. It's just not going to happen, so the shoe hunt is still in full force."

The Band Perry have four nominations going into Wednesday's awards, including a nod for New Artist of the Year. The sibling trio are also set to perform on the broadcast. The 45th annual CMA Awards air live from Nashville tomorrow (Nov. 9) at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.