So pursuing my passion for building an inner-beauty fashion blog has put a dent in my budget inclusive of clothing expenses. In this season of life more then every I have to watch every penny.  So for this holiday season, I will need to put together looks for those Christmas parties I am attending with clothes I already own. This year I will be attending a formal and a casual Christmas party.  I put together theses two looks straight from my bedroom closet.  Let me show you.

 

 

 

For Christmas holiday wear, I would recommend having at least having one of the following four materials in your look; lace, shiny silk, sequence, and leather.  You can mix up the elements as you please. I typically like to highlight one piece and this year I chose to highlight this cute high neck, crop top lace shirt I found at the bottom of my drawer.  This lace shirt was advertised to be worn without anything underneath, I loved the top but felt that type of look was a little too risky for my liking, so I purchased a flesh colored tank to wear underneath. I found with the tank underneath; I was free to be myself while rocking a shirt I absolutely loved.

 

 

 

 

So for the first look, the casual look, I chose to wear the navy blue lace top with dark skinny jeans.  I dressed up the look with a white blazer and my exposed ankle boots.  The cute detail in these boots is that they are black with a couple of soft navy blue suede pieces in the center front of the boot. The navy blue lace shirt enhances the navy blue color of the boots. I apologize it is a little hard to see in the pics. We were working with the best light we could get in my bedroom.  =)!  Practice makes perfect! Thanks for being patient with us!

 

For the more formal Christmas party, I chose the same navy blue laced top with one of my favorite A-line skirts!! I love the leather strip at the bottom of this skirt. I also decided to go with the exposed ankle boots.  I love the way the leather and lace come together in this look and the color scheme of black and navy blue. You can always dress up a look with jewelry.  If you are going for a more glamorous look, you can add chandelier type earrings or a thick gold bangle type bracelet. If this is more a corporate Christmas party for work, you can go with pearls and a watch similar to mine in the post.  That’s the beauty of a look it includes all accessories, and they can really change up a look without spending a ton of money on clothes.  Oh, by the way, I am an MBA with a concentration in finance/accounting, so it’s important for me to be wise about money, even when it comes to clothes!!!

 

For my hair and make-up, I decided to do a ” messy curl” look with my hair to give it a more “JLo glamorous” look and chose a bright red lipstick to go with the holiday season!

 

If you have found some potential items from your closet and are still having a hard time putting together a look, try any one or all of the following;

 

1. Go to Pinterest. Let’s say you have a sequenced skirt, type in “Holiday sequence skirt outfit” and see what comes up.  Take a look and see if anything inspires you!
2. Let’s just pretend for a moment that you weren’t saving your money for that financial goal, and you had some extra cash to buy an outfit. What store would you plan to stop by to pick up that outfit? When you think of it, go to their website and see what holiday outfits they have for sale this holiday season.  Does anything inspire you? Chances are you may have something similar since you frequent this store often. You might have to practice some discipline if you chose this option for it might inspire you to purchase something new.
3. Check out some of your favorite fashion bloggers on Instagram to see what they are wearing for the holidays.  Some of my favorite bloggers are Sincerely Jules, StyleMBA, Wendy’s lookbook and Song of Style.  If you don’t already have a list of fashion bloggers on your Instagram feed, make it a to-do item for the next five consecutive weeks to find at least one new blogger to follow each week. You will need this in your back pocket for casting a vision for you look.
4.  If you absolutely have to purchase a new clothing item, go ahead and make sure that the piece adds to the overall vision for your look and is not just a piece of clothing added to your closet for the sake of attending this year’s holiday party.

 

I hope you found this exercise to be helpful. I hope I was able to save you some time shopping and some dollars to put back in your bank account this holiday seasons!!  Enjoy your Christmas holiday parties and spread the holiday cheer!

 

Love in abundance,

 

Jamie

 

Photography by Andi LP