This letter is produced with support from Rùadh.
Last week I wrote something on Your Mom (my other newsletter, which is about motherhood) about holiday parties, and basically not really having any - it’s more nuanced than that, but you can read it here. The parties I do have, and do go to, aren’t the ragers or children playing grown-up dinner parties of my 20s, they’re mostly comfortable dinners at friends’ houses with all our kids around. If all goes to plan, I’ll be spending New Years Eve in a house in Palm Springs with my best buddy and our husbands and kids - I’m betting there’s an 89% chance we’ll all be asleep at midnight.
I wear sequins and feathers and colors in my day to day, so I don’t really feel any need to get overly gussied for parties - nor is it really that appropriate. Most of our homes at this age are shoe-free anyway. But still, I want an opportunity to feel a little special, a little extra put-together and beautiful, and the season affords that.
I do not, however, want to feel overdressed. I don’t want to feel like I bought a new wardrobe for the holidays, or like I’m trying on a new, partygirl persona. I want to feel like me, just ever so slightly shiny.
So then I started thinking about the kids of things I do reach for when I have an occasion. It usually starts with something I wear in my day to day life - in many cases, that’s denim. Rùadh is a pretty new brand, but they already have something of a cult following amongst editors and stylists. I wrote about them here, but the debut collection of denim makes up the foundation of the brand. Going forward, the designer, Jac Cameron, will slowly add in new categories seasonally to round out the brand as a full ready to wear collection. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’m reluctant to add new denim to my collection - I think this is a category you can quickly get over-indexed in, and realistically, you only need (in my opinion) two great pairs of jeans - one that you can wear every day with everything, and one that’s a little special and wide-leg. The Quinn jean, and the Rhone jean serve those purposes beautifully. I got to play with and style a handful of pieces from the debut collection for this letter, but as far as bluejeans go, they’re as good as it gets. I styled in a few additional denim pieces, which you’ll see. Along the same lines, I also wanted to do a sweatpants look - I couldn’t resist.
Anyway, so that was the starting point for this week - outfits that feel fun, but not over the top, that feel festive, but still me.
JEANS AND A SCULPTURAL TOP
These straight leg jeans are the kind I’d run around in all the time to basically everything - and they’re super easy to dress up. Here, I love the contrast between the denim (which doesn’t have stretch, but moves with your body) and the more rigid, sculptural top. It’s hard to see in these photos - easier in the video - but the neckline is gorgeous, and asymmetrical. It’s a good mix of organic and geometric. With the length of the leg, they’re easy to wear with heels AND with flats, but honestly, I’d go with flats because why make your feet hurt? Right? Unless this is a no-kid thing, in which case, heel away, baby.
In any case, the overall effect is less over the top HOLIDAY than slightly more polished and styled version of yourself - thanks largely to the inclusion of denim…. the shirt looks entirely different with:
SILK PANTS AND SCULPTURAL TOP
A GREAT look, and I would LOVE to wear this, but this is a totally different type of party. The Kallmeyer pants are sadly N/A, but you can’t go wrong with any of the trousers on her site (these are another favorite). These from Donni are a similar material, but not as ~crisp~ as the Kallmeyer. These are a very similar shape, but not shiny. But great price!
A DENIM SKIRT AND SSSSKIN
Oooh! I fell a little in love with myself here! This Rùadh denim skirt is so genius. It has a high waist, and this excellent tulip structure - and because it doesn’t have pockets, the top of it lays really nicely against the waist. This with a tee or sweatshirt or whatever, is something you could wear anywhere, even with a button down - but with a black button down and the black skirt, unbuttoned THIS low (oh baby!), and little shiny pointy flats…a dream. I can think of six thousand ways to wear this skirt, I felt so good in this. I love these shoes too - I’ve been so in on round toe ballet flats, the pointy crispyness of these feels very very fresh to me. Also, be sure to get a black button down with TONAL BUTTONS. Tonal buttons, always. They blend right in. This shirt is an old one from Comme Si, when they did a collaboration with Danielle Goldberg. They don’t make black anymore, but all of their shirts are A+++ winners.
DOUBLE DENIM BABY
I love this for a party - the number of times I’ve worn a men’s suit to a fun thing….I could have been wearing double denim all along. I love this because the the jacket and jeans are the same wash, so it feels very intentional. The most casual thing in the world - denim! - starts to feel very formal. The jacket is super special, the buttons have a semi-precious real gold finish, so they look like jewelry. Because of that, the whole thing really doesn’t need much. I like a red lip with this to give it some color, but the feather brooch I added is the same hue as the denim, so it feels very tonal, just a nice mix of textures. It would be impossible to feel overdressed in this, but barring a full on evening event, it would be hard for me to feel underdressed in it as well. Extra bonus, it would look beautiful under your wool overcoat in the winter.
The jeans are also great - they’re special without being overly novel, but mostly, they’re insanely comfortable I love the softness and the drape of them, especially contrasted with the structure of the jacket.
AND NOW SWEATS
I promised sweats, and here they are! I love this. I love the polished sloppyness, and the 80’s rumpled Prep school boyishness of it. I would absolutely wear this to a party, but the key elements are the silk shirt, knit layer, blazer, and fun socks with the sweatpants. You have to dress them up a little. My sweats are from Donni, but they appear to be sold out, these are also great. I go into it all more in the video, but basically - the extras make the sweatpants permissible. You can’t wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt when other people are getting a little dressy, but if you put in some more oomph, you can do it. You can do anything!
YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!
Thank you for reading, thank you, thank you thank you!
You friend,
Laurel
Share this post