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??
[…] our three part series on dressing for holiday parties. Last week, we covered dressing for “The Casual Party.” This week we’ll look at ways to festivize (yes, I’m going to use that word in […]