Low-Key New Year’s Eve Style

Festive style – be it your Christmas party outfits or New Year’s Eve look – never fails to conjure up images of migraine-inducing sparkle, Santa Clause red, and blinding levels of glitter. Come January, we’re usually snapping and uploading our holiday season wardrobes on Depop faster than you can say NO SWAPS! But it’s time to get a bit smarter, picking up some NYE-ready pieces in the Boxing Day sales that are subtle enough to wear again and again in the upcoming months.

 So let’s imagine the scenario: it’s New Year’s Eve and we’re all at that age where nobody really cares about having the *best night everrrr* anymore because going out-out on the actual night itself is overrated, overpriced, and over capacity – in fact, just making it through the end of 2016 in one piece is an achievement so the more safe the evening the better (sleepover, anyone?)

So you still don’t have any plans because you and your friends are playing that game where you all say you still don’t have any plans until it gets so late that one of them eventually caves and says “FINE you can all come to mine but it’s NOT A PARTY!” But then what? What do you wear to a party that’s not really a party although we all know it’ll end up turning into a party? Something you haven’t already worn to the countless Christmas shindigs you’ve endured, that looks low-key and effortless but still cool and impeccably chic? Does that even exist?

Get yourself some jazzy trousers, my fashionable friends. Cropped and flared just above the ankle, these & Other Stories pair have a playful silhouette that beg for a pair of Studio 54-style platforms to add some drama. But look just a little bit closer and the black fabric glistens and sparkles – but not in a shouty Christmas Party Dress kind of way – it’s a subtle shimmer that’ll roll over into January to brighten up the back-to-work blues with the addition of a smart blouse. For a more editorial finish that’ll make your friends that don’t really ‘get’ fashion laugh at you, throw on a puffer jacket (bonus points for styling the Balenciaga way) and simply remember the rule of “first they laugh, then they copy”.

Photos by Gemma Talbot