One Dress — Many Looks
By La Petite Acadienne‘Tis the season — for the holiday party.
The holiday party can range from the sublime to the horrific.
On one end of the spectrum, you have the festive/raucous, delightful/hilarious evening with good friends and intriguing strangers, filled with witty conversation, great music, delectable nibbles, excellent beverages, and a lovely atmosphere. Dancing games on the Wii are optional (it IS, however always a delight to see your pregnant friend Jennifer waving a remote around wildly to the gentle strains of “Groove is in the Heart.”)
On the other end of the spectrum is your boyfriend’s sad office party, where you are forced to make small talk with Troy, the unctuous middle manager who insists on talking with his mouth full (of spinach dip, no less) and who has already dropped every single name with whom he has even the most tenuous connection.
Buying a new outfit for a party that promises to be fun is a delight, but also comes with a certain amount of pressure. Buying a new outfit for a party you dread? That’s just bleak and sad and depressing.
So what to do? Get yourself a workhorse stunner of a dress and make that bad boy earn its keep by pairing it with a gamut of accessories.
You could go with black, but why not experiment with a bit of colour? This Donna Karan dress, with its artful draping, modest neckline and gorgeous colour, can work for a multitude of occasions.
For look #1, you could go with an elegant, yet somewhat exotic look. The rich colour and flattering draping of this dress remind me a bit of the saris that my best friend’s mom used to wear, so why not go with a bit of Indian influence? These earrings and this bracelet fit the bill quite beautifully without being at all costumey. This is perfect for a romantic dinner out with the beau, or for cocktails with the girls.
Look #2 is great for those evenings when you want to make a big impact without having to put a lot of thought into it. It’s one of those nights when you are getting home late from work and now have about a half-hour to shower, change and put on some makeup. You’re frazzled as heck, but still want to look put-together. Consider a bold, single accessory like this floral brooch, in a highly contrasting colour. It conveys a major amount of confidence and sophistication — basically, it’s the type of look that less confident women will wish they could carry off. And when you’re wearing a statement piece like this one, you can eschew any other accessories, making for fewer mental gymnastics at a time when you’re truly on your last nerve.
Look #3 is for those times when you really do have to go in a conservative direction. Perhaps it’s a business dinner with a client. Perhaps it’s some other sort of function with dreary but very important people. Conformity tends to be the name of the game at events such as this. However, there are still ways to add a bit of personality and quirk to your look. These earrings and this watch are classic and basic, while this adorable owl brooch adds just enough of a touch of whimsy that you won’t blend in TOO much with Muffy, Kiki, Babs and Myra.
Mind you, if you want to utterly knock the socks off of Muffy, Kiki, Babs and Myra, Tiffany’s version of an owl pin will probably delight them enough that their faces may break free of the constrains of their latest Botox injections and actually register a facial expression.
Well…we can hope, right?
Bisous!
LPA
