Party style: how to get it right this New Year's Eve
The expectation around New Year’s Eve can often outweigh the reality. I for one am likely to be found on the sofa in a pair of pyjamas, accessorised with little more than a cat, but for those who embrace hogmanay rather than hermitry it’s the time for a touch of pizzazz.
Where women might go All Out, men tend to play it safe, although those rather staid rules are changing; see Prince William’s recent foray into velvet slippers with his traditional tuxedo.
Much like how suiting has adapted for a climate where a formal three-piece ensemble seems excessive, so too has how we dress for evening events changed in recent years. Of course, some dress codes are cemented in stone; if your New Year’s Eve ball demands black tie, then it’s the full cummerbund and bow-tie regalia for you.
While most men are happiest - perhaps safest - in chinos and a nice shirt, perhaps a sharp blazer, it pays to venture down the style path less familiar once in a while, particularly on the most firework-fuelled night of the year.
Leave it to the debonair Tom Ford to lend a masterclass in how to look on-point while appropriate; this is a man who knows cocktail-hour sex appeal.
“It’s just a bit more fresh and modern,” he said, presenting his spring/summer 2018 collection in Milan six months ago, showing a glacially cool way to interpret after-dark style by pairing a tux jacket with a casually undone granddad collar shirt.
Certainly, a shirt with a more interesting neckline is a way to underline the fact you’re not in corporate mode. Slide a camp collar (that’s a 1950s collar that’s spread apart, rather than one from a Strictly outfit) over your blazer lapel, for example.
In a similar vein, it’s worth considering a jacket that’s a bit more impactful than a blazer or tuxedo; a velvet Nehru collar jacket is suitably soiree-ready but a tad more interesting.
And while wild nights out and cosy knitwear don’t regularly go hand in hand, it’s worth considering its merits; it’s warm, sleek if you opt for a lightweight wool, and looks sharp with a jacket.
Italian heritage house Bottega Veneta has even create a range of cardigans with exaggerated shawl collars, liked that of an evening jacket, worn with shirts and bow tie. A happy medium between indoors ease and party glamour that might even tempt curmudgeons like me off the sofa.