Just before I left work for the final time (eek!) we had our Christmas party, and this year there was a theme: Hollywood! Now I love a good reason to get dressed up, so I started plotting an old-school Hollywood get-up right away. The party itself was to be held in the upstairs office, so I knew it would have to be something appropriate and practical, but definitely a bit more glam than my usual attire.

Scouring some vintage blogs I had seen a lot of people looking rather fabulous in velour dresses. It is a material I hated as a child but looked rather fabulous on other people so I thought it was time to give it another chance.

As this outfit was going to be formal I knew there wasn’t much chance I would wear it more than a few times, and as I was only wearing it to the office I didn’t want to spend too much cash, so I went straight to eBay. Luckily because I started looking really early I got a real bargain, this cost me under £10 including postage! It’s not perfect, the straps were way too long and needed sewing (by my mum, I’m not kidding about how useless I am) but other than that they fit pretty great – it didn’t even drown my 5’3″ frame like I expected.

Now let’s be real, there was no way I was going to be able to get away with wearing a clingy dress like this without some work going on behind the scenes. In this case, it was my fist ever piece of Rago shapewear. I’ve been deliberating about what to get for months and finally decided to go for the 6207 after seeing Victory Violet’s post as we have similar pear-shaped frames (although mine is on the larger side). It’s not the cheapest shapewear in the world but it’s definitely worth the price difference. It makes a huge difference to the fit of clothing, and it’s pretty comfortable too. The downsides are that it is pretty difficult to get on (and pretty funny for anyone watching, there is much lunging involved) and as I have a short body it pulls up past my waist and leaves a small fat role under by bra strap.

I added this shawl I bought from Collectif last year. It actually ended up being perfect because the straps still kept slipping down throughout the night and it also made me feel a little less self-conscious about having my arms on show.

I am notoriously bad with accessorising but at least I tried here. I added my Glitzy Secrets necklace and my new Luxulite broach to finish it off. I love the little flash of colour it brings.

So there you have it! I still need to work on my fashion posts, but I’ve had quite a few on here lately – I’d love some feedback. Shout out to my hairdresser who did an amazing job styling my hair, you guys know that’s one thing I really struggle with. Maybe that’s one thing I should try to work on in 2016!