Party Dressing
When I am not in Charleston I live in Middleburg, Virginia; a village stuffed with people who spend their time riding horses, counting their money and overseeing minions who manicure their large estates. Since our social lives are not, as a rule, active, I leapt at the chance for a little intermingling when an invitation to one of the luminaries' homes arrived.
The centerpiece of the party was a tour of the house, which seems to happen pretty regularly around here. Of course, while we were being escorted, I was sneaking peeks into every nook and cranny of the house, which is on the historical register. The silk lampshades were all in tatters (very old money) and the Oriental rug was upside down. I think this is some kind of understated chic, like having your raincoat lined in sable. I discreetly lifted a corner to check the pattern, which was a silky pastel thing, worn to a shred in the center. Lots of velvet shoes and crests around.
I wore a sort of blue-grey beaded dress which was perfectly appropriate, although my thought was, "Boy, is this an old lady dress." And then it hit me.
Dressing for an active social life can be challenging. If you have to be out three- to four evenings a week, you have to manage your wardrobe like a general marshalling his troops. Knowing what goes where and with what is hard enough; making it all look as if it were designed with you in mind is like scaling Everest-really, really difficult.
Most people don't have a closet full of outfits that are perfect for every occasion. Even the lucky few who have unlimited budgets don't usually have unlimited fashion choices. Further complicating the "What Do I Wear?" dilemma is the fact that most of us work for a living and often don't have the time to go home to change into something for a party. What to do?
The perfect solution for Betty Chilton, the publisher of t he Charleston Gazette, who is invited to more events than she can count, is having a basic, comfortable pair of black silk pants and a black camisole. Depending on the event, she then adds colorful jackets, dressy sweaters or scarves and appropriate jewelry and she's ready to go. Several hand-painted jackets give Betty the ability to change the look of an outfit easily, and she doesn't have to buy something entirely new every time she goes out. These pieces are also extremely packable and take up very little room in a suitcase, so they are also the basis for her traveling party needs.
Betty's formula is really a variation of the "little black dress" theme. There is nothing easier than having in your wardrobe that perfectly simple, black basic dress, which can be dressed up or down with accessories. Strappy high heeled shoes, belts, earrings, scarves, evening bags all can be used according to the wearer's creativity to create looks that are different so that people aren't elbowing each other saying, "She's worn that same dress 17 times."
Even if you adhere to the most rigid professional dress code, if you wear a suit to work, your evening outfit can revolve around something as simple as changing your blouse to an underpinning that is dressier and perhaps more revealing: a camisole or halter top in dressier fabrics.
Large square scarves make wonderful tops. Here's how:
- Tie two ends behind your neck and two ends around your waist and drape the front into a cowl neckline, or
- Fold the scarf into a triangle. Fold the long edge of the triangle over once and tie so that the scarf becomes a strapless top. The point of the triangle hangs loose, creating a handkerchief hem that overlaps your skirt or pants for a dressier look.
Changing your button pearl earrings for shoulder dusters can also add glamour to your outfit. The important thing to remember about accessories of all types is that they have a context: certain pieces of clothing and certain accessories work together; others do not.
When you read in a magazine that fringed, sequined scarves are hot, that over-sized chandelier earrings are hot , that fur shrugs are hot and that buying these things will instantly update your wardrobe, go take a look in the closet before you buy into the hype. Understand the context in which these fashions have been presented. If you already own similar clothing silhouettes and looks that these accessories are meant to complement, and the scale of the accessories is right for you, then you might want to buy a few trendy accessories that will make you feel current.
What you don't want to experience is something that happened to an art director friend of mine, who spent a small fortune on a lavish belt that she read was a must have and then asked me what she should wear it with. We went through her wardrobe of very classic things and decided that she would have to buy an entire outfit for the belt. More aggravating, we decided after calmer reflection that while the belt was fabulous on its own, it really didn't look like anything that she would ever wear.
While she was attracted to the designer's vision and her creativity responded accordingly, she just was not ever going to be comfortable wearing it. "I'd feel as if I was playing dress up," she said wistfully.
Shoes can also change the look of an outfit. Keep in mind a few simple tips:
- Slim heels make you look taller and more graceful than chunky heels do.
- The shorter the skirt, the lower the heel. A skirt hemmed just above or below the knee can take a higher heel than a micro mini (unless you are a rock star). Long skirts, with the exception of formal wear, look best with flatter shoes or boots.
- Keeping shoes the same tone as your hose will make your legs look longer.
- A general rule for dressy shoes: the less shoe, the better your legs look.
When in doubt, keep it simple. Simplicity does not mean boring or unadorned, it just means not over adorned. Yves Saint Laurent said, "The woman should wear the clothes, the clothes should not wear the woman."
Often in our quest to make things in our wardrobes work in many contexts, we end up overdoing the whole thing. Whatever you put together - jewelry, shoes, belts, scarves - keep in mind that simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.
