10 Holiday dresses that will take you from the company party to year-round glam girl.

Holiday dresses can be the bane of our December existence. If you’re lucky, you’re able to swap frocks with a friend or know of a fabulous consignment boutique that helps justify buying something new for a single party. Why not think even further with your purchase this year and how you could wear it year round? We’ve found 10 dresses that can do just that and with just a spark of creativity, can be the dress that keeps on giving.

Carrie Parry’s Red Bow Dress

Carrie Parry’s Red Bow Dress made from 100% organic wool is a feminine, shift dress with a removable bow collar that “transitions easily from a day at the office to a night on the town.” We love the festive red tights for the holidays as they add a fun style element to what could otherwise be a boring shift with safe, black tights and shoes.

(Also available in black.)

Camilla Norback’s Butterfly Sleeve Dress

If you opt for a LBD this year, try stepping outside the straight and narrow you’re seeing in popular department store windows and add a little flounce and flair. Swedish designer Camilla Norback offers up this lacy dress that is just as much country as rock and roll.

Feral Childe’s Pleated Prokofiev Dress

Known for their graphic prints and seamless melding of color and shapes, Feral Childe always produces collections with at least one truly  stand out dress. This Prokofiev Dress in their Orchestra Print is that one. What can’t you do with this dress for a holiday party or, better yet, year round?

Dahl by Alison Kelly

Alison Kelly’s dresses are just as pretty as she is. Feminine, playful and at times glamorous, Dahl dresses come in a variety of colors (see site for more), and with 10 styles to choose from, you’re bound to find a style just for you.

Kelly Lane’s Galaxy Dress

Kelly Lane’s Galaxy dress is part funk, part lady. While the top part of the dress echoes the lines of a built in shrug, the rest of the dress is a basic shift that flatters. Worn with black opaque tights for a holiday party or teal tights for a night out, this dress will shape shift its way into your style universe.

Popomomo Palazzo Pantso

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It’s not a dress or a skirt, but these Palazzo Pants from Popomomo are a perfect fill in for holiday parties with a sexy cropped top and statement piece of jewelry or, just kicking back. The drawstring waist is an additional selling point for those holiday parties don’t come without their fair share of eating (and stomach expansion).

H Fredriksson’s Drip Dress

H Fredriksson’s Drip Dress drapes where it should and is made from a buttery soft silk. Contrast the shine of the fabric with a knitted tight post-party, add boots and a fitted black t-shirt and you have a whole other date in your Drip Dress.

Prairie Underground’s Austen Blouse

Not all parties you go to this holiday season are going to be under dim lights with a live band playing Duke Ellington. This Austen Blouse by Prairie Underground is actually long enough to wear as a dress (albeit mini), and looks great with patterned tights and a pair of shimmering flats or after your holidays are over with purple tights and heeled brown booties. This is also a great neckline to show off your favorite necklace.

Allison Parris’ Sammi Feather Dress

This is the dress that is made specifically for everything fun and fabulous that you do. Made from a raw organic silk, the Sammi Dress from Allison Parris will elevate you to a new level of sustainable with a fashion-forward feather crinoline skirt to balance out the industrial, exposed zipper on the back. Can you wear this dress again? Of course, but it better be in another state.

Lina Rennell Check Cocktail Dress

You didn’t wait all year to make a New Year’s resolution to start working out or intensifying your yoga practice, no, you did it faithfully – all year. Slip that toned body into Lina Rennell’s Check Cocktail Dress and watch how the other party goers keep using you as a gauge for how much they shouldn’t eat. This dress is for year-round and has so many possibilities for cardigan sweaters and boyfriend blazers, sandals and platform heels, this dress just brings it.

Top image: Allison Parris

The post 10 Holiday Party Dresses (You Can Use Year-Round) appeared first on EcoSalon.

I love silk. I love fibers. I love mixing fibers.

Thankfully silk is just one of many fibers I like to wear to add depth to outfits – or when I just want to feel effortlessly sexy and put together.

Since I own an eco-boutique I get lots of women who thumb past the silk section and I hear all kinds of strange things like “My mother wears it so I don’t want to,” “It’s too hard to take care of,” and my favorite, “Where would I wear it?”

Anywhere!

So on my Facebook page the other day I wrote: “Do you think silk is for young women? Seems like so many younger women are afraid to wear it!” And 21 comments later, I was surprised to see some of the responses:

“Afraid to wash it is probably more like it.”

“Silk can’t handle my lifestyle.”

“It’s the stain and care factor that kills me.”

I was happy to see the support for silk too, and the advice the different women – both eco-fashion writers and designers – had for on the fencers.

“Twill silk is a good bet for the wary… a coarser weave, more durable. Maybe it’s washing it that concerns them… it’s best to hand wash (won’t shrink) in lukewarm water with non alkaline soap (baby soap) and a touch of white vinegar in rinse water. Easy!”

“Silk is not that difficult to look after. You can either dry clean or hand wash and iron on low heat. Also satiny silk stains less than most other fabrics.”

“I wear tons of silk, winter and especially summer, my skin seems to love it. I’m not sure what you mean by younger, I’m 33 and wore it throughout my twenties, but then again, I was raised by my grandma who also wore it a lot and taught me how to wash clothes (not just throwing it in the machine!) so I’m more informed than average I think. I really love silk and am wearing a new silk top right now actually! In the summer the perspiration dries really quickly, a godsend for sweaty girls like me!”

Silk is rearing it’s delicate head more and more as seen in the recent sustainable collections of Gretchen Jones’ Mothlove, Dahl by Alison Kelly, H Fredriksson and Feral Childe, each with a very different spin on the fabric.

Obviously young, hip designers are creating and wearing it, but how do you feel about silk? Do you think it’s only for your mom or grandma?

Image: Batik Ella Dress from H Fredriksson

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