Mommy needs a cocktail…and a dress

AllyG: Ah, Christmas, the lights, the mistletoe, the hooch. It’s my favourite time of year! Especially this year after I’ve lost most of the baby weight (I won’t be wearing any belly shirts for awhile, but I’m not expecting those to come back into style, and at age 31 I AM too old for that), I’m looking forward to dressing up in something other than jeans and a t-shirt (that’s a good day).

I’m loving the beaded, sparkly dresses this season and thought I would bedazzle this post if you will with some holiday cocktail dress brilliance. Indulge me, will you?

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This isn’t crazy sparkly, however it does have the bedazzled magic on the removable belt (how much do you want to bet L-A would be whipping that belt off while I would be pulling out my bedazzler to implement even more junk jewelled fun!). This dress is from BCBG Max Azria. I also love this number from BCBG…

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Perhaps a little much for my holiday party circuit, but wouldn’t that shut up all the bitches who whispered that I was enjoying pregnancy just a little too much while watching me stuff yet another donut in my mouth? Now, mind you, it also looks like a bridesmaid dress for a quickie marriage in Vegas…but that’s sort of my look anyhow.

I also think this is exceptional in a “completely out there” type of way.

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Style.com refers to it as “Giambattista Valli’s love letter to the cocktail dress”. They write some good on that site. I just refer to it as “Pretty”.

I’m all over this sequined skirt. I got a fab deep purple sleeveless blouse at Winners the other day that would look perfect with this Adam Sequin wrap skirt.

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For L-A, I would suggest the Marc Jacobs version of the sequined skirt. She loves MJ. Bitch parades that Marc Jacobs purse around me every chance she gets. Whatevs, she ain’t got no Betsey Johnson diaper bag, DOES SHE ?

note to Betsey: Sorry for using your lovely purse as a diaper bag. I’m hoping you won’t hate.

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I sort of feel like she could salsa in this as well…non?

L-A: It’s that time of year again! (I write that knowing that one of my journo profs dies a little every time the words are strung together).  Christmas party time! A reason to get tipsy at work (parties….not just because it’s Tuesday and there’s scotch in your desk drawer)? Yes please. A reason to buy a new dress and get your hair did? I repeat: Yes please. But just like hanging up the lights (I usually get half way around the window and say ’shag it, I’m getting a drink’), christmas baking, and visiting with extended family: finding a great party dress can be a stressful pain in the arse.  You should have seen me the year I had a Christmas wedding to go to – I tried on just about everything in my size at Winner’s and any other store that might carry a cocktail dress at a semi-reasonable price.

A friend from high school recently asked me if I knew where you could find a dress that was about knee length (because let’s be honest, some of the dresses out there now are more like a cute top rather than a dress) and sleeveless, but without spaghetti straps.  A surprisingly tall order (see dresses, worn as tops). The first place I thought of was Pretty Things here in Halifax. Most of the dresses go to the knee (I am ridiculously self-conscious about my knees…ever since grade nine when someone told me I had funny knees. He had no idea he was giving me a life long complex!) and the owner knows that not every woman out there is wee and svelte, so she carries styles for different shapes and sizes.  Here are two of the dresses I like:

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Pretty, n’est pas? Classy enough for your work party, cute enough for your friend’s NYE fancy dress rager. You probably still need your Spanx, but that’s okay – the damn undergarments cost so much that you may as well get as much use out of them as possible.

A site I found yesterday could prove to be the holy grail of online dress shopping : Frocktastic. They have EVERYTHING. Not kidding. They have collected dresses from just about every designer and categorized them by colour, style or price.  You can get everything from this pretty princess of a Betsey Johnson dress (I was looking for a purple dress)…

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…to a dress by a hot Canadian designer, like Valérie Dumain

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…or Eve Gravel:

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Good luck on your party dress quest! Please don’t buy that last skirt that Ally posted. It looks like something a salsa dancer puked up.

Displaced heritage collection closer to finding home

Noelle’s – The Custom Cookie Company