Forget the LBD, this is the party dress you want to be seen in
Highly Instagrammable
'Tis almost the season to start shopping for Christmas presents, indulge in the best food and drinks, and don your finest party dresses for the many festivities you'll be attending.
And if you're looking for a little bit of sartorial inspiration, you've come to the right place. While a little black dress is always a failsafe, there's a big trend happening right now that is going to spice things up a bit: textured eveningwear - and I'm so here for it.
Much like the burgundy trend, textured party dresses dominated the Autumn/Winter 2024 catwalk at the shows, getting us all excited for party season.
This trend is all about bringing party dresses to life, giving them new dimensions thanks to touch-me textures and details such as tassels, embellishments and lamé. To be clear, these dresses are not for the faint-hearted.
They are made to be tactile, fun, a little bit outrageous, and definitely to be Instagrammed in, all night long.
In the catwalk, stand out gowns could be seen in all the fashion capitals. At Jason Wu, an elegantly structured strapless gold lamé gown at Jason Wu. At Dior, flapper-style metallic dresses. At Valentino, a classic LBD amped up with tassels. At Missoni and Zimmermann, bouclé textures added a cosy feel to proceedings. At Burberry, crushed velvet became chic again.
As far as styling goes, this is a pretty easy trend to master. Since you want to let the dresses do all the talking, it's best to tone down everything else. Think sheer black tights, black strappy heels or Mary-Janes, and minimal jewellery.
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Time to dust off your party shoes and shop my edit of the best textured eveningwear available to buy now.
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Penny Goldstone is the Contributing Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK. She writes about catwalk trends and the latest high street and Instagram sartorial must-haves. She also helms the Women Who Win franchise.
She has worked in fashion for over 10 years, contributing to publications such as Cosmopolitan, Red, Good Housekeeping, and Stylist.