As I have alluded to in a recent post, it’s that time of year when we can shamelessly bring all that dazzles out of our closets without feeling like we are over doing it. This month I have had five “parties” all together. It’s a rough economy so some of these are just mellow during-the-day office shindigs where we get lunch delivered rather than brown-bagging it. Others are full out evening events. I did not have a black tie event this year; those are just too over the top for 2013, I guess. So no ball gown shots to follow.

And, since we are all so busy celebrating this time of year, I still have three more “holiday events” after the new year. But, it would be anti-climactic to talk about holiday fashions on Martin Luther King day so I am going to share my holiday fashions with you tonight. There are only four because, quite frankly, the first holiday party of the season was an office event on December 12th; it was just so early in the season I could not wrap my head around being festive. Plus I was post-call. Bad combination to inspire sparking awesomeness. I might have worn red shoes but I really can’t recall the rest of the ensemble so four looks is all you get.

Happy Holidays!

This was for an office holiday luncheon. Every year it is a lovely catered lunch where we sit around the table lament how we can’t believe it’s Christmas already. At our last staff meeting, I humbly requested we add a Yankee swap to the event and if they agreed I would wear a sparkly top. My colleagues agreed and so I wore this Eliza J dress (with pockets by the way!) that is made of a substantially thick winter white fabric (that felt rather warm and cozy) adorned with gold-toned zippers with my Kors nude (uh, camel) pumps. I was post-call so picking an outfit that required heels and pantyhose was a big challenge for me, but hey this was a once yearly opportunity to shine with my work pals so I rallied. During the rest of the day I wore a 3/4 sleeve chocolate brown cashmere shrug over this sleeveless dress to make it work appropriate, and when it was party time I threw on this gold, platinum, and silver sequined zip front cardigan from Black House White Market. Caught a few looks walking past the ICU but it was worth it. It just made the work day party more fun to wear something so shimmery.

This was for an old pal’s annual holiday open house. It is a very fun party where people typically wear a range of weekend evening casual to cocktail party attire. While it was unusual for me to reach for a simple black dress without any glitter or shine, I chose this Kate Spade dress with a very conservative hemline so that I could debut the Jimmy Choos that my darling husband is getting me for Christmas (so glad he knows now!). These are the Tiara with a 5 inch metallic heel (I wish you could see it but I just did not strike the right pose) and a 3/4 inch platform. They are gorgeous and comfy. I added a little dazzle with my wedding bangles that I typically only wear with Indian clothes. I rounded off the accessories with a pair of simple dangly earrings that my very fashionable sister got sick of and gave to me several years ago (she may have moved on to something more fashionable but I have gotten a ton of mileage out of them) and the most gigantic piece of non-Indian jewelry I have ever worn. It is a sparkly high heel pendant on a long chain from Kate Spade that I recently acquired due to inspiration from our blog title. Finally, though it’s hard to see, the décolletage was embellished with a few sprays of Givenchy’s gold dust that my very fashion savvy brother-in-law gave me two Christmases ago. This look was what I did in lieu of velvet pants which I shockingly do not own. If you read my party like it’s mommytime post, it was for a party with a group of woman who don’t know me too well so I was able to bring out this statement dress that I have worn to a number of past holiday events including the one above a couple of years ago because no one there would have seen me in it before. It’s not the kind of dress one would wear outside of an event were sparkling is allowed thus it spends a lot of time just hanging in my closet waiting to be worn. This Nanette Lepore dress was also gift from my great older sister from whom I am always willing to take closet cast offs. (In fact, she is so very fashionable that she was recently recruited away from her I presume to be dull financial industry job to work at a fashion start-up.) Anyway, enough bragging about the big sis. This dress is unusual for me for two reasons. First it is a sweater dress. I am big around the middle and tend to look horrid in sweater dresses no matter how powerful a version of spanks I put on so I shy away from them. Second, it’s embellishments are silver and, as it so very obvious to anyone who knows me or had even spent a second reading this blog, my go-to bedazzling shade is golden. But this cashmere dress has an incredibly forgiving shape and the clear and black crystal jewels with silver brackets are placed to flatter so I love it. I paired it with the Louboutin Bourge and they brought a bit of edginess to a dress that can easily go either way depending on the accessories. I also added a chunky metallic red watch (whose face was evidently designed by Katy Perry if I am to believe Ideeli) to make it “more club vibe than semi-formal” as the velvet pant wearing hostess had warned me earlier in the day.

This look was a casual one I put together for my husband’s office party which started in daylight and ended shortly before dinner time. It was in theory an ugly sweater party but as you might have correctly assumed I am not one to knowingly embrace ugly fashion statements so I decided to go my own way. Given the hour of the day and the fact that I had never met any of my husband’s colleagues before I didn’t want to go too over the top. I also wanted to be comfortable in the cubicle focused environs. So I wore my beloved William Rast jeans that I bought on a whim as my first foray into both skinny jeans and Ideeli about 3 years ago. These are the most amazing jeans: perfect color and fit, not too stretchy so they really do feel and look like jeans and not jeggings which honestly don’t work with the spare tire situation I am currently still sporting. The Philosophy by Republic top was an Ideeli purchase from just earlier this month. This all-over sequined raglan sweater is both short sleeved and a bit itchy so it made perfect sense to layer my off-white Adea top under it (There is a layering top blog coming in the near future but if you know what’s good for you and your fashion sense, you should immediately toss anything else in your wardrobe that you currently refer to as a layering top and go to the Adea website). I added the brown Stuart Weitzman Accumulate boots which were a Nordstrom exclusive last season. (Yes, I liked the black ones so much and they actually fit around my gigantic calves so I got the brown ones too) to keep the casual look. Yes, I fully believe that sequins can be appropriately dressed down.

So that’s my holiday party fashion wrap up. If you have been following the blog you can appreciate that I brought the sparkle while also embracing some of my other fashion favorites likes dresses with pockets and boots that actually zip around my calves. Wishing you and yours a very merry holiday holiday season and a new year filled with fun, festive fashion.