Dressing for holiday parties with ease

Dec 12, 2011 by Clueless Fashionista

So the holidays are upon us, which means holiday parties and other festive gatherings.  If you aren’t a regular party attendee, it could be a bit tough to figure out what to wear to these gatherings. Wearing all black is great and very ideal for this time of year. If you get a great simple all black dress, like this one for $40 from JC Penney:

Now that you have a great dress (which can be worn year round, by the way), you can jazz it up with accessories. Here are some tips on how to do that:

1. Stockings. Patterned tights/stockings have been very popular lately. You can get some with sparkle or a pop of color and go with black pumps for a classic but festive look.

2. Sparkly accessories. The holidays definitely call for sparkle. You can get hair accessories, brooches, bracelets and earrings that sparkle. The main thing I want you to keep in mind is that less is more. Aim for doing no more than two pieces at once. You want to sparkle, not glitter like a disco ball.

3. Holiday colored accessories. Red and green are popular holiday colors and if you want to go for a more subdued addition to your black dress, look for accessories in these popular colors. Since it’s officially the holiday season, you should be able to find them fairly easy. You can even go as far as to wear pieces shaped like trees, wreaths or snowmen (to name a few). However, less is also more here. Don’t do more than one of these types of pieces.

I hope these tips help. For the record, when I do the holiday party, I definitely go for all or mostly black with sparkly or bright colored accessories. Black is very slimming and flattering and the accessories (even shoes, especially shoes) help make the whole outfit pop. If you have a go to holiday party look, post a comment. I’d love to hear your insight.