How Festive Is Your Attire?

Posted Nov 15, 2006 by Sandy Hughes

Updated Nov 15, 2006 at 06:30 PM

Well, Darlings, the holidays are fast approaching, and the party invitations are starting to pile up.  Which means we’re faced, once again, with the inevitable question:

What To Wear?

No matter what the invitation says, (or doesn’t say) about attire, we know that many of you are already agonizing over it, especially over the trickier events like Office Parties, Open Houses, and anything so vague you’re not sure what it is.  (You know, the kind we mean—like the invitation that says “Come Gather ‘Round The Wassail Bowl!”, or “Naughty Or Nice—Come As You Are!”)

And we don’t blame you.  After all, not only does one have to walk that precarious line between too dressy, too casual, too sexy, or too dowdy, but one also has to carefully rotate outfits to avoid wearing the same thing with the same people.  For those of us who keep holiday outfits and friends for several years, this can get tricky, not to mention expensive.

So before we discuss specific types of parties, let’s talk about building the foundation for your Party Wear wardrobe.

Here are a few a few basic strategies we use get through the season:

Keep and store any good holiday pieces and reuse them from year to year. 

Even if it’s hopelessly out of style right now, chances are you’ll be able to wear it again someday.  Velvets, tartan plaids, and lace blouses can all be worn forever, and, who knows?  That elaborate Christmas Sweater from the ‘80’s,—you know, with the hand-knit holiday scenes and the fringe and the appliquéd bells?  (C’mon, we know you had one) could be just the thing five years from now.
And if you’re not sure you’ll remember what you wore with which people each year, keep a written, running list and store it with your other holiday items.

Dress up old basics, or slightly outdated outfits, with a new trend.

Some years, that might have meant adding a Pashima and chandelier earrings.  Other years, it could have been a brooch and some kitten-heeled mules, or a maybe a sparkly shrunken cardigan.  This year, it can be patterned hose,  wedges or peeptoes,  a sparkly chain or pendant,  and maybe a trapeze jacket or an empire top.

Don’t forget about hair, makeup and nails.

So many times when we’re trying on outfits, we don’t take into account our hairstyle or the makeup we’ll be wearing.  Sometimes all you need to make an outfit “holiday” is a smoky eye or red lipstick, which is good news when you’re trying to stretch your wardrobe across several parties.  Just remember that you need to choose your poison:  Elaborate hair—worn “big”, long, or wavy—needs a simple outfit (meaning neutral colors and little embellishment or detail) and toned-down makeup.  Strong makeup—say, smoky eyeliner, or sparkly eyeshadow, or red lipstick—needs smoother hair and a relatively simple outfit as well.  And when the focal point is on your body—that red satin jacket, gold lame sweater, ruffly blouse, lace skirt, etc.—hair and makeup should be dead simple.  In other words, let one thing shine at a time.

Try to invest in one “killer” item each season.

Whether it’s a basic, like a superb little black dress, or a distinctly holiday item (the red satin, the emerald green velvet, the gold lame, etc.), if you buy one new thing each year you’ll be able to rotate it into outfits from party to party and year to year, using our “Keep and Store” plan. 

So, assuming you’ve acquired, or are planning to acquire, some Basics and a few Killers, what do you do with them?  We’ll have to get to that next time, Dears—all this talk about parties is making us thirsty.
But we promise we’ll continue the discussion, from what to wear to the Office Party, to what in the heck “Festive Attire” actually means, next time.

Until then, Cheers!