Top Five: January Party Dresses

I know, I know, why am I talking about party dresses? It’s January and everyone is broke/detoxing/giving up alcohol. Payday seems to be forever away and all everyone wants to do is hibernate until February. Well, everyone apart from January babies. It was my birthday last week and I speak from experience when I say that January is the most depressing month to be born, for the above reasons. No one is ever in the mood to celebrate, do you turn a year older but without the sparkles and glitter. What a raw deal!
When I turned 30, I changed my celebrations to a few months later to celebrate my half birthday and it was a revelation. Everyone was happy, tanned, the weather was good and everyone was happy. This year though, I’m going to champion January celebrations and making sure the year gets off to a good start – whether there’s a birthday to celebrate or not. Everyone needs a good excuse to get dressed up in a gorgeous cocktail dresses  to start the year off right. Here are my top five party dresses under £35.

1. Black embroidered shirt dress – £25 A classic shirt dress is the perfect piece to take you from the office to dinner in January, it’s not too dressed up but easy to accessorise up. I love the embroidered detail on the back. I’d wear this with opaques, chic court shoes, a choker and a bold cherry lip, this season’s biggest makeup trend.
2. Navy bodycon mini dress – £25 Navy is one of my favourite colours, especially in the evening. Black is timeless but everyone wears black, I also find navy more flattering. This figure hugging dress will accentuate your figure and I love the delicate strap detailing.
3. Velvet bodycon dress – £25 Velvet was one of my favourite trends for AW16, it just feels so sumptuous and luxe. That’s why I couldn’t resist adding this little velvet number to my edit. The champagne colour would look equally good with opaques or bare legs when the weather starts to warm up in spring.
4. Off the shoulder denim embroidered dress – £30 Off the shoulder is a key trend for SS17, seen across the catwalks from New York to Paris. This dress would look great with some over the knee boots for a statement look or red courts, playing up the red embroidery.
5. Black dress with lattice crochet detail – £35 I couldn’t do a dress edit without at least one LBD. As much as I love navy, you can’t go wrong with a classic LBD. I love the crochet detailing on this dress, I’d style it with 1920s style Hollywood waves for a bombshell look.

In collaboration with Claire McPhillimy