Oct 07, 2022

What To Wear On What Occasion: A Complete Guide

Dressing for casual occasions like happy hours and dinner parties is easy. You throw on something that feels appropriate, hit the road, and you’re done. Dressing for more formal occasions, whether they be professional events or social ones, is a little trickier. Having an appropriate outfit in your closet takes some thought and preparation.

To look your best requires some planning. You can’t just throw on any old thing and expect to look as good as you could. Instead, you need to follow a few simple rules that make dressing appropriately much easier to do. No matter what the event is or the company you'll be keeping, these three tips will help you dress appropriately at every occasion—no matter how occasional it might be.

Know the Occasion

You should always start by figuring out what the occasion is. Knowing what type of event you’re dressing for will help you decide what type of outfit is appropriate. This will make it much easier to pick the right outfit for the occasion. There are many different social occasions that you may need to dress for. Knowing what event you’ll need to dress for will help you decide what type of outfit is appropriate. This will make it much easier to pick the right outfit for the occasion.

Casual - If you’re going out to a casual event, you can wear almost anything. This kind of event usually only has very loose dress code rules - if any at all. You can wear jeans and a t-shirt or a fancy sundress. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you should try to look nice, but not too nice. No one wants to go to a casual event and see someone show up in a ball gown. Casual events are for dressing comfortably, but still looking nice. - Business - If you’re going to a business event, you want to look put together, but also approachable and friendly. You don’t want to look as though you’re trying too hard or be too dressed up. Layering pieces and accessorizing are great ways to look professional yet relaxed.

Semi-formal - If you’re going to a semi-formal event, you want to look polished, but not overdressed. Semi-formal events are all about finding that happy medium between looking nice and casual. You don’t want to show up in a suit, but you also don’t want to wear a t-shirt and jeans. Try wearing a nice button-up shirt with tailored pants or a slacks.

Evening - Evening events are typically black tie affairs. These events are where you’ll want to really show off your personal style. You don’t want to show up in a tuxedo, but you also don’t want to wear a t-shirt and jeans. Try wearing a nice black blazer with dark pants.

Formal Events

Formal events are those that are black tie, white tie, or cocktail attire. These are usually the biggest events, so they get their own section. These are the events where you really need to show off your style and spruce up the wardrobe. You can show up in a tuxedo or a fancy cocktail dress. You have a lot of options when it comes to formal events, but you have to be careful not to overdo it. You want your outfit to look elegant and fancy, but not too fancy.

Be sure to keep these few things in mind when dressing for a formal event. - Match Colored Accessories With Your Outfit - When you’re dressing up for a black tie event, you want to make sure that all of your accessories match your outfit. This is especially true for colored accessories such as ties, belts, and handkerchiefs. You don’t want to wear a bright pink tie with a black suit. It will completely throw off your whole outfit and look uncoordinated and tacky. -

Keep It Simple

Formal events are not the time to show off your creative side. You want to keep your outfit simple. Avoid patterns and embellishments. You want your outfit to look elegant, not tacky. No one wants to be standing next to someone wearing plaid pants or a sparkly tuxedo jacket.

Stick With Solids - When dressing up for a formal event, you want to stick with solids. No patterns or crazy prints. You want to keep your outfit simple and elegant. Solids will help you achieve that.

Show Off Your Assets - Depending on your body type, you may want to try and show off certain parts of your body or “assets” at a formal event. For example, if you have large arms or shoulders, you could try wearing a jacket that covers them up. If you have a smaller body part like your legs, you could show them off by wearing a shorter skirt or dress.

Engagement Party & Weddings

If you’re invited to an engagement party or a wedding, they’ll usually let you know what type of dress code they prefer. If they don’t mention anything, you can assume that it’s a semi-formal event. Most engagements and weddings follow a semi-formal dress code. You can show up to these events wearing almost anything as long as it follows a semi-formal dress code. Just make sure you don’t show up wearing jeans or something too casual. You want to show respect for the bride and groom by dressing appropriately.

Women should show up to an engagement party or wedding wearing a nice dress. Dresses are great for these types of events and will help you look nice without being too dressed up. You don’t want to show up in a fancy dress. Instead, you want to find the happy medium between formal and casual.

Stick to Solids

When dressing up for any formal event, you want to stick with solids. This is especially true when it comes to tie dye clothing, tie dye shirts, tie dye pants, etc. You want to avoid wearing tie dyed items to a formal event. This is because tie dyed clothing is not consistent. It has different patterns and designs in each shirt and each pair of pants. This can be confusing when you’re trying to match with other people. No one will know whether you’re wearing a tie dyed shirt or if you’re wearing a tie dyed tie. You don’t want to be that person that throws off the whole group.

Show Off Your Assets

If you’re a man, you want to show off your assets at a formal event. This is especially true if you have a larger body type. You want to wear clothing that will make your arms or shoulders look smaller. You can do this by wearing a jacket with wide lapels or by buttoning up your shirt all the way. You can also avoid wearing baggy clothing. You want to wear clothing that is slimming and compliments your body type. If you’re a woman, you don’t want to show off your assets. You want to try and hide them. You can do this by wearing clothing that covers your legs, arms, and torso. You want to wear clothing that is long and flowing. Avoid wearing short skirts or dresses.

Combine Dark and Light Colors

When dressing up for a formal event, you want to combine dark and light colors. This will help your outfit look more elegant and put together. You can do this by combining a dark shirt with light pants or vice versa. You can also try layering dark and light pieces together such as a light button-up shirt with a dark blazer. When you combine dark and light colors, it will help your outfit look more put together and elegant.

Dark colors—colors like black and navy blue—tend to be more formal than light colors. This is why you see people wearing black tie on formal occasions. But don’t get the wrong idea and rule out all light-colored clothing. There are some light colors that are perfect for dressier occasions—like white, cream, and light grey. This is because it’s not so much the color itself as how it’s put together that matters. For example, a navy blue suit looks formal, but it also has some pattern to it. A white suit, on the other hand, is usually plain and simple—and thus more appropriate for more formal events. So when in doubt, go for the light colors.

Choose Accessories Wisely

Accessories like belts and shoes can really complete an outfit and make it look more put together. But don’t go overboard. When choosing an accessory, first think about the color of the rest of your outfit. Is it a light color or a dark one? And then make sure that the rest of your outfit is consistent. If you have a navy blue suit, your belt and shoes should be navy too. Someone once said, “You can’t go wrong with black.” While this is true for a lot of things, black belts and shoes are not the one thing. Instead, go for lighter-colored accessories. Black belts and shoes can look a little too formal for most casual occasions, and they can make you look like you’re trying too hard to look classy.

Stay in Your Color Comfort Zone

When you’re trying to decide on an outfit, find colors you feel most comfortable in. Think about what colors you look good in. Do you look good in blue? Then there’s no reason to avoid it just because it’s a “formal” color. At the same time, though, don’t avoid colors you know you don’t look as good in. This is the number one mistake people make when dressing for formal occasions. They’re so worried about avoiding their “bad” colors that they end up wearing something that’s completely wrong for the event they’re attending.

Conclusion

First dates, job interviews, and other major events are all appropriate occasions to dress up. It's also good to dress up for more casual occasions, like happy hours and dinner parties. To look your best, you need to follow some basic rules. To dress appropriately, you need to combine dark and light colors, choose accessories wisely, and stay in your color comfort zone. Now you can confidently face any event knowing you look your best.