How does Virginia Woolf use imagery in The New Dress?

As the title suggests, Mabel's new dress functions as an important image and symbol throughout the narrative. Its old-fashioned cut and material stand as everpresent reminders to the party guests and, more importantly, to Mabel that she does not belong. This enormously self-absorbed woman sees her dress each time that she passes a mirror, and Mabel mentions it to everyone she meets. Paradoxically, the dress, which "marks" Mabel as inferior, is what she uses to begin conversations: "'It's so old-fashioned,' she says to Charles Burt, making him stop on his way to talk to someone else." She gets his attention, if not the response she wanted, when he exclaims, "Mabel's got a new dress!"