Day-to-Night Holiday Style: Put your Party Clothes to Work
Dress for all-day success with a few tips from working women.
NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2007 — -- We ask more of our clothes during the holiday season. The rest of the year, an office outfit is an office outfit and an evening ensemble is just that.
But during that brief time when one might be called on to do her day job during the day and then attend a party or charity event at night, dressing becomes a strategic activity. The outfit needs to look crisp and fresh for an extended period of time, be appropriate for all sorts of settings and, most importantly, be comfortable enough so a smile can be mustered at 8 p.m.
Three busy women -- Nancy O'Dell, dress designer Julie Haas and Banana Republic's vice president of women's design, Alessandra Brunialti -- show the AP how to dress for all-day success.
Nancy O'Dell has the luxury of a secondary closet, the wardrobe room at the "Access Hollywood" studio in Los Angeles. When she goes from the set, where she describes her typical outfit as casual yet professional, to either a more formal premiere or a personal event, she reaches for one of three "Access" dresses.
Each one is in a jewel-tone color -- black isn't good for her on-camera gig -- and each has a pencil-skirt bottom. One of them has a zippered front so she can pull it all the way up and look conservative during the day and then send it south for a sexy neckline at night.
She calls her pencil dresses her "quick-change" dresses, even though she never changes her dress at all. O'Dell changes her shoes from flats to strappy sandals or high-heel boots and then adds a chunky piece of jewelry. She'll also swap little stud earrings for larger sparkly ones.
"For me, the biggest change is the accessories and shoes. Shoes give a huge fashion change: You can go from a beach party in flip-flops to strappy high heels and look very eveningish," O'Dell says.
All-day hair and makeup is another challenge. "If I want my hair to last a long time, a long pony for work and turn the pony to a chignon for evening," she says.
She wears minimal eye makeup during the day, so she can pump it up in the evening _ eye makeup can get cakey if you wear it too long. Her lips are colored in a pale-colored lipstick no matter what time of day it is.
