and losing phones and the veracity of a red
lipstick’s smudge-proof promise. But more likely
it’s because party-dressing remains the most
challenging aspect of style for me and, I think, many
women. If even the words “occasion wear” set off
a small shudder, you might well be one of them.
Refining your personal style is always a process of
elimination, but the chances to experiment, to learn
what works for your body and budget, and rule
out what doesn’t, are simply fewer in the area of
festive dressing. Yet the stakes (emotional, financial,
in some cases professional) feel much higher than
say, honing your unique take on athleisure. There
is so much to get wrong, so much risk and outlay,
competition and pressure, that if you’ve ever stood
weeping in front of a full-length mirror, surrounded
by cast-offs while a taxi meter ticks outside, you
were probably underplaying it, if anything.106 ELLE AUSTRALIA
E
ach party season adds another item to the
list of Things I Will Never Do Again. From
1996, my first year at university: never stash
your taxi money down the side of your
knickers, because you’ll forget it’s there
and be reminded only as you watch it swirl down
the one toilet on the party boat. (Or, for brevity,
never go on a party boat.) From the 2003 Christmas
season, to which I brought a nine-week-old baby:
never force your lactating self into a Bra From
Before and an inaccessible sheath dress, because
11pm will find you breastfeeding in a restaurant’s
storage cupboard, naked from the waist up, with
your foot against the door to prevent staff
wandering in for paper towels.
In recent years, the additions have been entirely
sartorial. You would hope it’s because, at 38, I’ve
learned every lesson there is to do with clear spiritsAfter a long,
champagne-fuelled
search for the perfect
party-season style
formula, Meg Mason
decided to slip into
something more
comfortableHAPPY
PANTS