Planning a special outfit is something I enjoy. I like piecing it together and finding the right shades and accessories. It’s coming up to party season now and I have a bit of a system for putting together something a bit fancy to wear. I don’t always buy new items, but I culled a lot of my clothes this year and I needed a cute new cocktail dress for this season.
1. Find the central Item
This is always the start for me. It doesn’t have the be the dress or clothing item either. One time, I found THE BEST shoes, and I built an outfit around it. This time, it was a cute dress I found on a clearance rack. Could be a pair of earrings, necklace or bag.
2. Look at colours
As a general guide, I look at the central item and pick a main complimentary colour to work with (this time pink), as well as a highlight colour for accessories (rose gold). I could have also gone bronze and nude/grey and pink/pink and brown/light olive green and bronze or many other combinations. I don’t always do this combination – 1 complimentary colour / 1 accessory colour – but it’s a good place to start. Depending on the outfit, sometimes I just work with the accessory colour. For example, I adore the look of all white with silver or brown accessories.
3. Look at textures/patterns
One of the things I liked about the dress was the patterns and texture of the fabric. The dress had a bit of a shine to it, so I opted to go with glossy accessories rather than more of a matte/leathery look. The earrings and shoes have subtle patterns too which tied in nicely.
4. Piece it together
Last thing is to look at my existing wardrobe for complimentary pieces/add new items and bring it together.
- Dress
- Pink shawl
- Rose gold earrings/cuff/shoes
- Clutch
I wore the dress I’m taking about recently to the Kidspot Voices of 2015 Gala event in Sydney. On the day of the event, I realised I needed new foundation so I went to David Jones, and the woman at the make up counter said she could do my make up complimentary for me which was a lovely treat! She went with the same sort of colour theme: bronzey/pink with just a little bit of shine to the eye make up. Many of make up counters will do complimentary make up with a minimum purchase, so ask your preferred make up counter and keep it in mind if you have a special event so you can time your next purchase.
Party, party!
With Caz from yTravel Blog and Clare from Checks and Spots. Last image by Her Collective.
Dress: Pagani
Shoes: Lipstik Kara Rose Gold
Clutch: Kmart
Scarf: Farmers
Cuff & Earrings: Lovisa
Hair: This is my go-to upstyle and you can find the tutorial here.
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