How To Dress Right For Fancy Occasions

L et’s be real: don’t we all eagerly wait to attend a fun social gathering? Okay, maybe not those of us with social anxiety, but even then it can be refreshing to attend one with your favorite people around –for good company, food, and memories. Knowing how to dress right for fancy occasions can, thus, be an important skill to have because the right outfit can boost your confidence and self-esteem, enhance your mood, and help ensure that you get kickass pictures for the gram!

This gives rise to the question: what is a fancy occasion in the first place?

Well, it can be a range of things. Depending on your personal likes and dislikes, life experiences, cultural norms and expectations, religious beliefs, and what stage of life you are at. 

For instance, a birthday may be the fanciest occasion possible for a teenager or young adult but may feel like just another day to an older person.

Similarly, a specific holiday maybe a fancy occasion for some while being merely a means of getting extra sleep and enjoying downtime for others. In fact, for many, a seemingly ‘non-fancy’ plan (which some might even think of as being boring) can be the most special, cherishable, and fancy occasion out there –like a picnic at a local park with one’s small circle of friends. The bottom line is that any event that feels special to you and sparks joy can be categorized as fancy.

Fancy Occassions Require Fancy Dressing

Figuring out what feels like a fancy occasion to you is the first step in deciding what the appropriate outfit for it would be. While the definition of what can constitute fancy will vary from person to person, there are some occasions that are widely believed to fall under that banner. 

This includes birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduation parties, valentine’s day, new year’s eve, formal business dinners, carnivals, and certain religious festivities such as Christmas. For each of these events, the type of clothes you should ideally don will depend on a number of factors. Here are two of the most notable ones:

1. The Size Of The Gathering

How big or small the gathering tends to be a significant factor in deciding one’s outfit because there may be certain pieces of clothing that you will be more comfortable flaunting in smaller, more intimate gatherings, rather than in front of hundreds of people. 

Larger gatherings come with the risk of having many people you don’t even know, let alone being an adequately acquainted with, which can make you feel uneasy and self-conscious if you’re dressed up in what may be considered controversial by your societal standards; this can include dresses that show more skin than usual. Feeling nervous about how the people around you may behave with you based on their subjective perceptions of your dressing can suck the joy out of the said fancy occasion. 

Therefore, we recommend going for more culturally acceptable forms of clothing if the gathering is large. In a small gathering of only your closest kith and kin, though, flaunt whatever floats your boat!

2. The Nature Of The Event

How central to you is the fancy occasion in question? Are you the one getting married, turning 18, graduating, or having a baby shower? If yes, you might as well go all out! It is not only socially acceptable but can in fact be important to dress to stand out from the crowd the more central your presence to the event is. This is because it’s your special day, and you deserve to feel the most special out of everyone in the gathering. 

Similarly, if the occasion in question will revolve around someone super close to you, don’t be afraid to have one of the fanciest, most embellished outfits in the gathering. If, however, the event is not closely linked to you or someone dear to you, or if it’s the kind that isn’t centered around one individual (e.g. a carnival, religious festivity, or formal business dinner), then you might want to not go overboard with the nature of your dressing and keep it rather simple yet elegant.

In The End...

At the end of the day, prioritizing your comfort level with respect to the feel of the outfit as well as the gathering is the best strategy to practice. There are no hard and fast rules to deciding how to dress right for fancy occasions (or any occasion really), and what matters is what feels right to you and helps bring out the best in you.