Interpreting Dress Codes

I was talking to a friend the other day about a cocktail party she was going to and she didn't know what to wear. It was causing her slight anxiety.  She was more unsure about what to wear. I find the most common concern of my clients and the people that I talk to are more about what is appropriate to wear to certain functions such as cocktail, smart casual, black tie and then the new ones popping up such as a red theme a client had last week and whether she really had to wear red.

I find these are very tricky issues if largely you just don't know your style which leads to uncertainty about what to wear, which leads to no confidence in anything you think you might wear and then eventually no confidence in what you wear on the night. With the case of my friend her issues were that she wanted to wear colour but she doesn't wear colour in her day to day.  She mentioned that everytime she sees me I am wearing colour and on that particular day I was wearing my bright red Equipment silk blouse with just some plain denim skinny jeans and my YSL nude patent tribute sandals. So nothing too outrageous really.

Anyway I took note of her concerns and said I'll have a look for her. I reassured her though that Cocktail dress is colour, generally shorter than a full length, above knee is great but not mini!!! (unless you are 20!!!) but it is the dress code that you can have the most fun with.

I know red doesn't exactly say wall flower.