What to wear to the Christmas Party 2016, you ask. It has to be said that my work place is a little bit zany, and in past years fancy dress has been the order of the day at the Christmas Party. I have only been there for 6 months and I am reliably informed that past themes have been:

• Circus
• Bollywood
• Characters from musicals
• Movie characters
• Horror movie characters

I think one whole party was dedicated to Harry Potter themes, in great detail.

The senior management clearly set the tone of taking having fun very seriously as shown in this photo from last year’s party. 

I have seen a lot of photos at past fancy dress events as they are generally rolled out at leaving do’s.

There is no fancy dress theme for the 2016 Christmas Party. I’m not sure whether this is because it has been organised by our Emerging Leaders who are very earnest young people, or because fun has been hard to come by this year with the local government reforms and tightening of belts.

So, what should the 45+ plus size woman who is in a high level position wear to the Christmas party?

There are a number of issues to take into consideration, when it comes to Christmas Party Outfits:

1. How do I wish to appear in the future in endless photos of the event being rolled out at future events?

2. What image do you want to portray? Distant and hierarchical – just say ‘hello’ to a few people and then leave? Willing to join in and have fun? Or, leading the fun?

3. Should I wear a crazy outfit during the day? Wear a normal outfit that can be made crazy? Or, change into a crazy outfit shortly before the party starts?

Attitude is the key to wearing plus size fashion. So, here are 2 photos of a similar outfit being worn with different attitude.

The first one is at a conference where we are all terribly senior women, so we get to misbehave together without any penalties. This is in the Palace Hotel in Broken Hotel.

So, in this photo I am wearing the same top with a red camisole, and a skirt with beads on the bottom and the side slit? I can wear this during the day, with black shoes as almost normal business attire. I will then put on my Dorothy shoes and ‘silly it up’ with bauble jewellery. Thanks to my colleague Dush for the baubles. I think the necklace looks very fetching. 

So, I think this will portray the effect I am trying to achieve of leading the fun; staying sober and then leaving before seeing anything someone might regret, or at least turning a blind eye!

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