Happy Wednesday, you guys!

Okay so, I have officially hit full holiday mode. I have been reading gift guides galore, and my calendar is stuffed with festive activities now through 2018(wow first time I’m reading that out loud!!). This weeks holiday activities include seeing National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Love Actually at the Music Box Theatre tonight and I am so excited I have told basically every person I’ve seen in the past 48 hours. Later this week I am attending the Joffrey’s Nutcracker with my mom! I am so happy to be taking her to the ballet, I think she is going to be truly surprised by how much she will love it.

Occasions like the Nutcracker are the perfect opportunity to get dressed up and fully embrace this festive season. And I think the perfect way to do this in in velvet!

When it comes to pulling together an outfit for a dressy holiday occasion there are soo many directions you can go! The key to holiday dressing is to stick to festive colors. The ideal holiday color scheme is to go traditional but a touch deeper, so think of rich almost jewel like tones such as oxblood, emerald, and navy.

And of course a vast majority of velvet dresses come in these tones! I purchased my dress from ASOS last year for my office holiday party and it was such a good purchase. Unlike the sparkly attire I buy every year for NYE this dress is timeless in my eyes.

When it comes to styling velvet my main pointer is don’t be intimidated by it! Honestly treat your velvet dress like you would any other oxblood dress and style it accordingly. Here I added patterned tights(which I love!!) and over the knee boots. Last year I opted to style this dress sans tights(which was truly risky in Chicago in December) and black and gold booties. Soo the point here is, even if velvet seems like branching out to you, don’t worry the texture will enhance your outfit I promise!

p.s. every holiday look is 10x better with a red lip. My favorite is a dark rich red by Kat Von D called Plath, I love this formula soo much! If you prefer more of a cherry red check out Underage Red.

I hope you are having the best holiday season so far and with you nothing but peace and joy!

Cheers!