Fashion Fridays: Dressing For Holiday Parties, Part 1

Alright girls, it’s the MOST wonderful time of the year!

I love Christmas.  I love the reason for Christmas.  I love the smell of Christmas.  I love the hospitality of Christmas.

I even love the fashion of Christmas.  If it is done well.

So today is the first in a three part Christmas-themed Fashion Friday Series: Dressing For Holiday Parties.

1.      Holiday Party Situation 1: The casual party. 

This would work for your neighborhood, your school, your church, or your Saturday morning book club brunch.  Don’t miss the opportunity to festivize your wardrobe!  (Yes, that’s a word.  Festivize: To make festive.)

2.      Holiday Party Situation 2: The fancy party. 

My favorite!  I so should have been fashionizing in the 1950s!  (Yes, that’s a word too.  Stop judging my holiday dictionary!)  I seriously love dresses.  Never is there a better time wear fancy attire than Christmas/New Year’s.

3.      Holiday Party Situation 3: The office party. 

Now this party could fall more within the #1 camp or the #2 camp, or it could be a combination thereof or business attire altogether (bah-humbug!).

I think the casual party is the hardest, maybe it’s my sensibility or avoidance of items that actual depict Christmas items, so we’re tackling it first.  Particularly if you’re a mom, you’re going to have casual holiday parties with the kids or Christmas outings where festive attire is a must!

In the category of overtly holiday, I love this ensemble of a red cowl neck snowflake sweater with a skinny ivory trouser from Talbot’s.  While I won’t go for trees or Santa Claus, I love the nod to the old fashioned Christmas sweater that this outfit makes:

Here’s a great way to inject color in an alternative way – with all the colored jeans out there, try selecting a cranberry red or a hunter green pair!  Add on some knee boots and a festive black and white sweater.   Macy’s offers them in red and green for less than $35 and, if you’re willing to splurge, the emerald colored jeans that Anthropologie offers are gorgeous.  While I’m partial to this particular sweater (look at those elbow patches!), for $40 there’s a fun black and white chevron sweater at ModCloth.

The easiest solution for a casual holiday outing though is always a good pair of jeans, comfy solid t-shirt, great boots, and then add flare with the scarf and sweater.  Several of these outfits could be paired with trousers or cords as a solid alternative to jeans that can even dress it up a bit.

I’m totally in love with the blatant Christmas pairing of red and green chevron in the infinity scarf in the first ensemble.  And I adore the red suede boots paired with Christmas plaid in the second ensemble.  Now I will say that a red flat tall boot is hard to come by, but in a pinch you could always pair the outfit with a bootie and DSW has a number of red suede booties for less than $50 just in time for the season.

Charming Charlie’s offers some really festive scarves all of which are under $20 and JC Penney offers some lovely holiday plaid scarves for similar price points.  And, drumroll please, the scarf pictured in the first ensemble is $4 through Amazon – WHAT!?!?  And if you’re in the market for a gorgeous cashmere cardigan for this particular ensemble, Nordstrom offers a beautiful, but pricey, one.

How do you festivize for holiday parties??