Safe or Smokin': Party wear
Black or bordeaux evening skirt, check. White or ecru silk shirt, check. Every women has her holiday standbys, in pant or skirted version.At a certain point, you can throw it on mindlessly. But why not splash out a bit? Spending on evening accessories might feel frivolous but they are the magic ingredients for looking more gorgeous than you ever thought possible, and doesn't that feel like a gift in itself?
Shown, Talbot's ensemble available in December. Simple, useful, but safe. When I see a woman in this bland party wear, I want to slip her an Old Fashioned and a wad of fifties, and say "celebrate yourself".
Below, a few head-turning additions for standing under mistletoe or enduring a business party. All you need is one little thing that's unique, enchanting and specifically for evening. Your posture, attitude and enjoyment of the evening will rise.
Wrap music
Etsy seller bonzie's du
iponi silk wrap, $85. Based in Waterford, Ireland, bonzie makes romantic and unique items. Tantalizing tights
Silver
Gretal Lace Print Tights, Bebaroque, £45.00 from Liberty. Intricate detail in a metallic palette; these tights take a knee-length skirt from safe to seductive. Felted jewels
Malene Birger embellished felt necklace, $265 from net-a-porter.Don't buy another dress, buy this. A seriously well-designed yet playful piece, worth every penny.
Madly festive shoes
Nanette Leop
ore Peep Show Booties, $395 from Neiman Marcus.What they will do for your LBD, your pencil skirt, crepe pants– anything that needs a new lease on party life!
A cocktail hat
A woman of 50 or more has earned the right to the hat and the cocktail. Cocktail hats work on any hairstyle, but look best with dresses. This black velour with coque feathers is only $70 from Artikal, and would make you feel like Ava Gardner.Budget pick: Big ring and brilliant black beads
Daytime jewelry does not usually work for parties, so unless your life allows for investment in evening pieces, mix your real with costume.
Aldo "Castonguay" cocktail ring, $10 on sale.Throw on a
several Aldo "Caps" beaded chains, at $20 each. All glammed for $50.Take a bow
Vera Wang's moonstone and crystal bracelet with silk ties, $250 from Saks Fifth Avenue.Fling on a fab fur
Walking into a party in your practical everyday coat is like serving stale breadsticks with your best recipe. Pink chinchilla wrap from eBay seller dwachte915, BIN price, $1,950. A luscious wrap is not such an extravagance because the shorter-haired furs will last decades.
The same seller has a divine YSL-style black fox capelet with satin ribbon tie for $395; wear as a collar or off-the-shoulder stole. The simplest LBD will sparkle. See this seller's eBay store, W Furs Wholesale to You, for other colours for both pieces. I've enjoyed amazing fur buys through eBay vendors.
After-5 bags
My particular party parsimony is the evening bag. I rely on Le Duc's pockets too often. But Aldo to the rescue again, the sleek "Stayrook" comes in silver or gold for $25.
If you're willing to spend more than I am, Carlos Falchi's python clutch, $875 from Saks is on another level, a luxurious and classic bag.Shop now for the best selection, because many women will enter party panic mode soon. Besides, it's fun. When I step into evening wear, I always feel, in the first few seconds, like the little girl playing in my mother's finery again.
Comments
Everything you show would make a LBD or a dress of a different color pop and sparkle. I'm sorry, but I never saw the point of the first outfit, safe yes, but dressing should be fun as well as practical, especially dressing up.
What I would love to find for a basic evening ensemble is a winter-white/ecru tuxedo suit with small lapels or a shawl collar. Duchesse and friends, have you seen anything like this recently?
You have some great suggestions here -- getting me in the party mood!
Over the years, it seems that the number of events in my life where this level of dressing up would be appropriate has dwindled down to nothing. Our company no longer throws a swanky holiday party. Friends' parties are mega-casual. It's a shame really. I keep thinking about throwing an old-fashioned cocktail party for the holidays, but I don't know anyone who would actually dress up for it.
I don't know if things will ever turn around, but right now it feels like "Puttin'on the Ritz" is a thing of the past, at least in my part of the world.
metscan: We live in a climate where fur is useful and can be worn for many months.
LaureAnn: Target strikes again. I really balk at spending huge money on an evening bag.
Frugal: Sure- but you have your own magic at thrift shops!
materfamilias: We make our own opportunities, not formal but "dress up". Funny how the tone changes when we serve cocktails instead of beer and wine :)
Pseu: Why not Mad Men theme it? I love dress up- short of ballgowns- cocktail dress or evening pants/dressy top just feels so much more like a party to me.
Deja Pseu: I would love to come to a party where "cocktail" or some other dressy attire was requested. If you decide to throw one I think you may find that your friends would enjoy the opportunity to socialize in their finery as well.
I agree with your philosophy of adding something spectacular to the basic safe setup.
I don't really have many events that call for this kind of clothes, and I'm working at the few that do, so I'm even more anonymous (all in black, usually) than the first pic of the dull lady.
But at least not many people would show up in scruffy jeans and certainly not in running shoes. Those who show up in black or dark denim jeans have the arse for them and fine leather booties + jackets. Most people dress fairly well though a little more boho.
One manfriend of a more than certain age (he is in his 70s) who is a scholar of Latin American studies, has a collection of those wonderful tucked formal shirts usually in linen or cotton, sometimes with self-coloured embroidery, that men wear in the Caribeean, Mexico, Central and the northern part of South America.
I do have a very pretty embroidered evening bag, but it is rarely practical when I'm either taking public transport or trudging through the snow, carrying victuals and pretty shoes to wear once at the party.
Le Duc wears those shirts, called guayaberas in Spanish, in the summer. Dashing tropical menswear.
Carrying shoes, my bête noire.
And Duchesse, the advice to Laurie Ann is quite good- find a tailor or dressmaker and have the tux made. In winter white, you'd be stunning at any social event of the season. Be the lady in white in a sea of blackness. The Mad Men idea is a another great one. That may have been the last true decade of everyone dressing up.
Pseu, Who was it that said, "Never worry about being overdressed, worry instead about being underdressed"? And keep in mind the words of Crash Davis. In a scene from Bull Durham, trying to get Nuke LaLoosh to throw out his old flip flops, he holds them up, points to the fungus on them and instructs, Think classy, you'll be classy."
I understand how people fall into the habit of casual dress for parties- "no fuss", "keep it easy". But it is so much less fun.
I think it's a relaxation of social custom over time, part of same trend that causes (some) men to visit good restaurants in baseball caps which they keep on, while checking their BlackBerrys at the table.
But the relaxation is not universal; all of the parties we attend at holidays are dressy; the men may wear a suit or not, but the women are always in party attire.