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Friday 26 December 2014

Ballin'


Every once in a while, the opportunity comes along to dress up and make an effort for the evening. Trust me, when such an opportunity arises, I rarely turn down the offer to act like a princess for one evening and one evening only.

For my college Michaelmas Ball, I was unsure which direction to take. The attire for the evening would be a vast mixture of short, long, plain and extravagant dresses; the theme was Hollywood glamour, thus I decided to take both the floor-length and the extravagant dress route. 

The dress discussed I picked up at London Fashion Weekend, almost two years ago. It is by the designer Ruth Tarvydas, via the website girlmeetsdress.com. It is full length sequined fishnet, layered on top of a plain polyester fabric of the same nude colour. The neckline is low (if you could even call it that!), a V-shape extending well below the bust. 

The back detail on this dress is probably my favourite feature; two thin straps cross over and fall mid back, creating a gorgeous backless-like impression, without feeling that too much skin is on show. The dress also has a long train, which looks gorgeous but is not great to dance with! Another option to consider would be to try and hitch it up, and stitch it in place so it was a lot shorter. Unfortunately, I lacked the time to do this, and I do think the train adds an extra dimension to the dress, so I decided to leave the dress as I bought it (apart from shortening the straps slightly). 


With such a statement dress, I found it difficult to pair accessories with it. In the end, sticking with the 'Hollywood Glamour' theme of the ball, I decided to keep it simple and very 'red carpet'-esque with a sleek satin black clutch, red lips, and nude heels (which were not visible anyway). 


For make-up, I was tied between going for the nude eyes/red lips look or a smokey eye/nude lip combo. I decided on the former, seeing as I knew golden browns work best with my blue eye colour, and I thought I needed a bit of a pop of colour to outset the subtle beige/nude ton of the dress. For my eyes, I used the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, and for my lips I used a dark burgundy Kate Moss for Rimmel shade.


For more dresses like this, I would check out Ruth Tarvydas. Most of her dresses are sequinned, which are perfect for the festive season and for any event for which you are looking to stand out! A brand which I would say is similar, but just on the shorter/less formal side is Jovani. 

Take care, keep shimmering!
Talia xxxx