Going all out
This party season is about excess dressing, with an emphasis on opulence and exuberance. This is no time to hold back, explains Marie Kelly.
Unlike almost any other Christmas I can remember, the answer to any festive-wear crisis this month is categorically not a little black dress. It’s simply much too sober for the first festive season in three years that hasn’t been blighted by the other C word which I’m too superstitious to type out in full. Wearing an LBD this month is the sartorial equivalent of sitting in a corner sipping an Old Fashioned when everybody else is clamouring around a Champagne tower. And just like the bubbly retro pour-over, party wear this season is intoxicating for its utter ostentation.
Colour, cut-outs, sequins, feathers and bare flesh. I could be describing an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and certainly, there’s a campness to the current out-out aesthetic that reflects our collective need to simply exhale and kick back, having survived another turbulent 12 months. Writer Susan Sontag once said: “the whole point of camp is to dethrone the serious” and this is precisely the point of party wear right now: to topple our stress for at least as long as the mince pies and mulled wine hold out.
Emerging Irish designer Louise Kavanagh knows a thing or two about this kind of camp chic. The 26-year-old lived in New York after graduating from NCAD and shared a flat with two drag queens who had an enormous influence on her party-wear style. The three fashion obsessives would head to Le Bain, one of the city’s “absolute best rooftop bars”, according to New York Magazine, and navigate the notoriously difficult door policy by dressing in the most flamboyant and extravagant outfits their limited budgets and abundant dress-making skills could muster. “Each of our outfits was always packed full of colour and texture,” Kavanagh explains. “Dressing up to party was about being completely over-the-top and having fun with fashion because this is what makes people feel good, and Le Bain is all about having a good time.”
So is Christmas, even if our memories are a little fuzzy on the precise how-tos of a traditional December knees-up. But dressing to have fun is the first step towards actually feeling the fun, and if you believe New York nightlife style has little or no bearing on your own choice of festive frock, think again. Party dressing right now is inhabiting a global glamour that’s as resonant in Greenwich Village and Saint Germain as it is in Grand Canal Dock. This desperately needed change of fashion pace began earlier in the year at the spring-summer ‘22 shows in February, which looked like a collective invite to an Elton John after-party. If there was one outfit that embodied the mood it was a crystallised catsuit at Burberry.
Sequins and skin at the British heritage brand renowned for tartan and trench coats? You know the fashion zeitgeist has altered dramatically when a brand like Burberry sends a sequin onesie down the runway. Former Vogue staffer and head of content at Victoria Beckham Niamh O’Donoghue noticed the paradigm shift keenly on the streets of Paris at fashion week in September. The Dublin native says the swoosh of sequins was louder than the wail of scooters around Paris’s infamous ring road. “The street style elite married everyday denim with shimmering rhinestones, layers of skin-sucking latex and outrageous silhouettes,” she explains. “This season nobody needs an excuse to be excessive. Frou-frou frocks, sparkly shoes and over-the-top accessories just feel right, whether you’re going for a festive lunch or an after-dark soiree.” O’Donoghue describes the vibe as a “sophisticated-but-rebellious fabulousness”.
Who isn’t up for a bit of sartorial insurgency after two Christmases defined by rule-abiding and self-restraint? Dolce & Gabbana has always excelled at risqué, high-octane glamour, with its erotic, lingerie-style corsetry and signature hourglass shapes, and this year proved no different, even if the autumn-winter runway show did look more like a scene from sci-fi flick Blade Runner than the Italian classic La Dolce Vita. Standout looks included an embossed silver mini dress with matching thigh-high boots and a red patent cropped top and coordinating mini skirt, both of which looked as if they had been constructed by tying together party balloons. The traditional purveyors of “molto sexy” also had ideas for the black aesthetic addicts among us, which fizzed as loudly as any of the pop-art brights and molten metallics. Sheer black bras and corset-laced mini skirts looked anything but solemn, instead expressing an energy and tension that oozed a ‘let’s get this party started’ spirit.
It was no surprise to see party wear with a capital P delivered by Donatella Versace either. The doyenne of Italian fashion once described herself as a “dangerous” party girl in the nineties, and she celebrated an ‘if you’ve got it flaunt it’ attitude with second-skin silhouettes, micro-minis, boned bustiers and boudoir fabrics in shades of chartreuse through to fuchsia, as well as plenty of dance floor-ready dresses. Similarly, British designer Christopher Kane flexed his flamboyant design muscles with pieces of tulle and silk jersey held together with gold body chains.
Victoria Beckham AW22
This enthusiasm for shimmer, bodycon and swagger has been embraced, too, by several brands, who like Burberry, are less associated with overt sexiness and more with refined polish. Despite building her reputation on serious separates for women who don’t mess around, Victoria Beckham captured this new no-nonsense, notice-me aesthetic with fine-knit catsuits, clingy dresses, organza cut-outs and fuchsia sequins. It was part brand Beckham and part brand Posh, as the former pop star leaned into her alter ego’s signature body-hugging aesthetic in some of the more unexpected elements of her collection. But rather than the gauche look of the early noughties, the return of this vamp was purposeful and elevated. O’Donoghue points to all-over-bodice statement sequins as one of the standout moments of Beckham’s AW collection. “A new sex appeal was also echoed in delicate knits paired with shimmering sequins and floor-grazing slip dresses,” she explains.
It was part brand Beckham and part brand Posh, as the former pop star leaned into her alter ego’s signature body-hugging aesthetic in some of the more unexpected elements of her collection
Beckham’s catsuits were the unlikely key to keeping her traditional customer happy. As the designer herself said before her Paris show, these are for layering under dresses and skirts, thereby creating a look that is sensual and body-skimming but fully covered. As always, Beckham is a designer who just knows what works for women. If your disposition doesn’t lend itself to the hedonistic dress code of Donatella et al, the best investment you could make this month is a good quality body top and pair of tights (preferably in colour). They’ll create the same effect as Beckham’s luxe all-in-one, providing just enough discretion for comfort and confidence.
Audrey Hepburn said “Life is a party, dress like it” and the most recent AIB Retail Spend Outlook Report released in August suggests consumers are quite literally buying into this mantra. According to the report, sales of dresses, shoes and cosmetics bounced back significantly in the first half of this year, with in-store sales up by a massive 55 per cent. If IRL shopping continues to soar, it’s likely that the high street will experience a bumper Christmas period given how vibrant, tactile and theatrical this season’s party wear is. Pieces like these are so much harder to return to the rail after being touched and tried on because they’re designed to transport you, to get your toes tapping and your hips swaying.
This movement towards brave, extravagant and provocative style is as tangible among Irish designers as it is among the fashion week elites, so it’s possible to achieve this season’s sought-after global glamour by buying local. Sorcha O’Raghallaigh’s Flamingo Pink Feather Bag and Lilac Ombre Feather Cape have a distinctly 16Arlington feel to them that embodies the opulence and lavishness of any disco-ready diva. Caoimhe Murphy’s sheer Rose Beaded Ruffle Top with embellished love heart motif is playfully sexy – suggestive yet sweet – while award-winning designer Aisling Kavanagh’s duchess satin bralettes and bow-trimmed tulle sleeves are far more than the sum of their parts, cleverly minimalist but with a maximalist impact. Helen Hayes’ Navy Ribbon Large Blossom Skirt looks like it was designed just to be given a turn on the dance floor and her Duchess Satin Squares Bag is, well, everything. Richard Malone’s signature flamboyance, meanwhile, feels utterly of the moment translated into majestic and decadent drapes in regal shades of burnished gold and purple.
Other brands to consider this Christmas include Rixo. Co-founded by Derry native Orlagh McCluskey, its party edit is a dressing-up box of feathers, lamé, ruching, sparkle and shimmering metallics. The brand has always been about dressing up to show up, but this season its appeal looks likely to seduce an even wider customer base. Rotate’s patent fabrics, corded ruffles, asymmetric lines and artful cut-outs fall precisely on the right side of provocative, while H&M can always be relied on for a healthy serving of fringing, sequins and sky-high hemlines at this time of year.
We may have missed out on the predicted Roaring Twenties-style celebration last Christmas, but this year, designers are bringing sexy back and with it permission to party like it’s, well, 2019.
This article originally appeared in Irish Tatler, November 2022