How To Wear A Cocktail Dress

Hi. I'm Zoe Lem, stylist and owner of My Sugarland, and today, I'm going to give you some insider's tips on how to do fashion. I'm now going to show you how to wear a cocktail dress.

A cocktail dress generally is a bit shorter so it's either knee length or just above. Depending on your age or what the occasion is that you're going to, it's getting the right shape for you and something that's right for your lifestyle as well. This is quite a young shape.

It's quite a kind of 50's prom-style dress but it's nipped in here, nipped in at the waist. This is most women's smallest part so it's flattering, nipped in here. This has got boning through the bust so its strapless but it's going to hold you in.

It's still going to give you a really good shape. It's a-line so it's got the gathering and then it nips out. The shininess is great because it's flattering and lifting and it's going to really brighten the face.

It's then picking out accessories to go with that. You can just go black and keep it simple. You could go for a black shoe.

This heel would be great. It's a platform, padded through the shoe, so it's going to be comfortable if you're out for an evening and dancing all night. But rather than going with the usual, shake it up and do something a bit different, so add in silver as another tone, a third color.

As long as you marry that somewhere else and bring the tone in the rest of the outfit. So, we're going to go for accessories to bring in that silver as well. We're going to go for shine and a bit of sparkle.

No necklace, because when you've got strapless dress, it's quite nice to actually keep this clean and keep it simple and go for sparkle through the ears. Go for something in the ears. Keep that vintage style but without going completely vintage and then a little head piece.

So again, bring in a little of the back but in neutral tone so it's not too heavy and too hard on the hair depending on your hair colour, and then a little jacket to balance that out in the shoulders especially if you're hourglass or pear shaped. Alternatively, if you're looking for a cocktail dress and you're a little bit older, this is great for very young kind of 20's style, but this beautiful sort of 40's, 50's shaped dress is really flattering. It's a bit longer.

It's just below the knee but all this ruching through the waist is really flattering. Slightly higher neck line so you want to keep the accessories simple and just go for ears. You could bring in with this a navy.

You could do a black or go for metallics, go for a pewter or an antique gold. So, this is a great shape and really easy way to style this one up. You don't need to go too crazy.

You don't need anything too much on accessories because there's a lot of detail through here. So, the key thing within a cocktail dress is don't go over the top, keep it simple and keep the balance head to toe. And that's how to wear a cocktail dress. .