5 Ways To Dress Festively & A Few Words Of Style-Related Wisdom For You

It’s not hard to be festive when it’s cold out, thanks to chilly air demanding layers of luxe fabric and furs (faux furs if you like). You can go with brocades, velvets, satins, and even silks to achieve your look, but sometimes it’s as simple as a few final touches in the right hues. Here are five simple ways to add some inviting, chic festivity to your look in the form of accessories, color, and texture.

1. Jewel Tones. These are your winter fashion weapons. Know them and use them.

2. Metallics. While metallics can be added to your look any time of year, they become especially effective and even subconsciously applauded by your peers when you work them in during the cold months. It reminds one of glistening ice, snow, Xmas lights, etc.

3. Florals. Stick to folk-arty and Nordic looking prints when you do florals in the winter. When all else fails, a floral brocade scarf can amp up your attire (try the street vendors near Columbus Circle if you live in NYC, that’s where I got this one).

4. Indian wedding jewelry. I wear it all year round and I consider it an absolute essential for a holiday party. I bought the one shown here for $2 at a flea market (and no, it’s not plastic). Check ebay for some relatively cheap jewels that probably won’t last more than a couple of years, but will definitely beat the Forever21 jump-off’s your friends are wearing.

5. Furry winter accessories. I love my earmuffs so much I can’t even write about it. But you can see them below.

Bonus points for purple contact lenses and jeweled earrings.

Overdone? A bit. Festive? Yes, that’s the point! Have fun with what you wear, especially during the holidays. These photos were taken of my outfit to Xmas dinner. I laughed a little at myself for being decked out like a jewel-toned Xmas present, but if there’s ever a time to compare yourself to something like that, it’s during the holidays and into the winter season. ;}

I’m excessive, I’m super into jewels and colors, and here’s something I’ve learned after studying & working in fashion, obsessing over what was cool and oppressing my natural tendency to dress a little bit more gaudy than everyone else (which was lame as hell):

Have fun with everything you do, everything you wear, everyone you know. Enjoy yourself. Be festive, let go, dress up, wear costume jewelry, go a little over the top, saturate yourself with color, stick a feather in your hat, wear something because it calls to you and not because you think it’ll give you style street cred.

Life is so much more amazing if your heart is light and you’re having a good time, whether you are wearing six inch platform heels and a designer jumpsuit or a hand-sewn frock and some beat up old lady shoes with hand-glued gems on them.

When the clothes on your back match what’s in your soul, “fashion” becomes so much more interesting, and so much more exciting to explore and experiment with.

After all, it’s about creativity and self-expression, and finding out what colors, shapes, textures, and concepts make you feel like a god damn superstar, isn’t it? Are you really going to shrivel up and die if no one stops you for a street style photo when you’re walking around the city? Do you really need to worry about whether your outfit is “style blog worthy”?

Maybe if you work in fashion, that’s part of your work uniform, and that’s totally fine.

I’m not saying put on a clown costume, down a bottle of champagne, and hit the street. I’m saying shred your jeans if you want to, wear as much jewelry or pop-color lipstick as you want to, do your hair in an out-of-date style if you love that style. Have fun, have fun, have fun. Wear whatever the hell you want.

I promise that this is the only way to feel cosmically right with yourself when you get dressed every day.

 

That’s enough of my soap box for tonight!

xx