Goin' Glam

“We must never confuse elegance with snobbery.” 
— Yves Saint Laurent

When the DH retired at the beginning of 2015, we took a two week Caribbean cruise to celebrate. People watching is always fun and there was one pair of sisters traveling together who made for good watching. Even though they weren't twins, every day they wore a different identical outfit. They told me they'd gone on a special shopping binge just for that cruise so they could match all the time.

The DH and I won't be trying to match quite that exactly, but we do need to have cruise wardrobes that work together. This is especially true when it comes to formal wear. 

Men have it so easy. If you've been following my blog, you know we splurged and bought the DH his first ever tux in preparation for this cruise! He looks terrific in it and he has a red vest and tie he can wear to change his look a bit. He'll probably also pack his dark 3 piece suit, a summer weight light colored suit, a couple of blazers, dress slacks and a smattering of ties to give him a number of options.  

Mix and match dressing for women doesn't always read so well when you're trying to go formal. But I've put together a few pieces I'm pleased with. Here's my black formal capsule:

The foundational garment is a long sleeveless black gown, which I pair with either the purple & green pashmina/wrap or one of the two jackets. I have an additional red and black pashmina I can throw into the mix. And for a change, I'll be packing black palazzo pants and a fancy black shell to replace the dress.

Next, we move on to what I call my gray scale formal capsule: Gray sparkly palazzos topped with the gray beaded tunic, or a purple shell & lavender sequinned jacket, or the grey cowl-neck thing that looks like a sweatshirt in this photo, but is actually actually shot through with silver threads. 

Then since we'll be spending a good bit of our world cruise in warmer climes, I thought I'd throw in this island-ish ensemble: Navy dress pants, green camisole, and navy/aqua float.

Of course, I'll have the right jewelry to go with each outfit. My mom, who's the queen of sparkle, would disown me if I didn't. In fact, she's already volunteered to let me borrow a few of her "pretties." 

I'm not sure how many formal nights we'll have, but I can wear some of these outfits for regular evenings, too. As Mom says, "It's better to be over dressed than under dressed."


How about you? Do you enjoy dressing up? Or do you prefer to be casual, but not rumpled?

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