Forget the Dress Project

Edit: Just to clarify, this post is in collaboration with Most Wanted. Three of the items in this post were purchased with credit provided by Most Wanted to the value of £50. All opinions are my own and the items chosen were my own choice.

Did you know that 18-24 year old ladies spend on average £119 on festive party outfits each year? I know I've been guilty in the past of buying outfits for Christmas Day or New Year's Eve that I have never worn again. You don't have much reason for red velvet and sequins outside of December.
So this year, the people at Most Wanted have launched the "Forget the Dress" project- a challenge to wear the same dress for three different festive occasions, with a budget of £50 for accessories, which Most Wanted provided.
As remixing has always been a big focus for me on my blog, I was really excited to be asked to get involved. I love finding new and interesting ways to wear the same items.
For my outfits, I chose my favourite LBD- my Jones and Jones Audrey dress in black. You might know that I have this dress in four colours-red, cream, yellow and black. I think the black one is the only one I'm yet to feature!
I chose this dress because it's pretty, but also fairly simple so can be easily remixed. I decided my three outfits would cover:

1. A casual Christmas Eve lunch

2. A fancy party

3. A night on the town

And I chose three items for my £50, one for each outfit. A cosy beanie hat for my casual outfit, a pair of classy heels for my fancy outfit and a chunky statement necklace for my party outfit.

heels- New Look

beanie- Accessorize

necklace- New Look

(all purchased with credit provided by Most Wanted)

So onto the outfits..

Outfit One- Casual Christmas Eve Lunch

dress- Jones and Jones

boots- New Look

scarf- ASOS

hat- Accessorize (c/o Most Wanted)

denim jacket- New Look

Christmas Eve lunch is kind of a big thing in my family, Every year we go to the same restaurant. The menu hasn't changed for years but it's just one of those nice traditions. It's not a super dressy occasion, so I decided to use it as an excuse to turn a fancy tutu dress into something more casual. For me a denim jacket is the ultimate dress-down piece, and a big chunky scarf and beanie are next on the list. I've gotten really into wearing hats lately- I never thought I was a hat person! I went for flat boots to dress it down, but a splash of red lipstick to keep it a bit sophisticated.

Outfit Two- Fancy Christmas Party

heels- New Look  (c/o Most Wanted)

furry jacket- Quiz

name necklace- Gift

Apologies for the slightly creased dress!

Well I don't really have any fancy parties to go to, but hey, you might! To be honest, my idea of fancy is swapping a denim jacket for a furry one and putting heels on! This is my fancy jacket. I put it on when I want to look sophisticated. And it's surprisingly from Quiz! It's one of those things that always comes out in the winter and I love it. These are the perfect simple party pumps. Well except for the fact I bought them a size too big and ended up rubbing off half my little toe on Friday when my boyfriend assured me we only had to go a "five minute walk" (it was more like 20). Don't worry, I have insoles! I've been sorting my jewellery out for the move up to my new bedroom (which was where I took these photos!) and I finally found my Charlotte name necklace that had been missing for ages. Oh and yeah I thought I'd try taking photos in my new room (more on that soon!) cause a) I had a white wall and b) the carpet fitters were in and I didn't want to look weird emerging from my room every ten minutes in a different outfit. I think I prefer them downstairs. Plus while taking these I walking into one of the window beams and nearly knocked myself out. Speaking of injuries- note my hand being behind my back a lot to hide the huge bandage from cutting part of my finger off last week!

Outfit Three- New Year's Eve

leopard boots- Charlotte Russe

leather jacket- H&M

necklace- New Look  (c/o Most Wanted)

It's no wonder my leather jacket is falling to pieces- it my staple on a night out and it's had its fair share of being shoved into handbags. I have three huge pieces of black tape on the elbow and back to keep it held together because I'm yet to find one I like as much. The biggest problem is that it's really short and I love the cropped style and I haven't found any yet that are this length! Anyway, add some leopard print booties and I'm ready to go! These might be my favourite shoes. They're LEOPARD PRINT BOOTS. I love pairing them with a really simple, block-coloured dress and black tights so they can stand out.

I changed my makeup for this look from a red lip to a smokey eye. I really wanted to change my hair up and go for a beehive for my fancy outfit, but after reading Carrie's tutorial she recommends two-day-old hair and mine was freshly washed and curled! Also I've only successfully gotten my hair into a beehive once. In fairness it lasted two whole days but it took a lot of persevering!

So will you try to "Forget the dress" this year and remix some of the dresses you already own for your Christmas parties? Let me know if you do!

Charlotte x