What to accessorize a white blouse with – create contrast and drama with a black necklace. If you are going for a subtle, classic look, wear pearls. But if you want to give the outfit a little more pop, then a black necklace will add that extra contrast. You can also wear a thick garnet choker,  those dark red large stones against the white collar gives a similar effect.

And notice the thin red belt. It’s all in the accessories. Never look at a blouse just as a blosue. Look at it as a canvas. The same blouse can be given many different moods by just changing the accessories. When you try on clothes at a store, bring a few different sets of belts, necklaces and other accessories with you to the fitting room, to test different moods for the same blouse.

Although autumn has only truly arrived with fallen leaves recently, in fashion-time, it happened a while back. Catwalks had Christmas on their mind and the party dress sashayed, swept and shook down the runway in cute, cheeky and glamorous splendour.

One of the more notable developments is the future of Christmas glamour.

Dries Van Noten illustrated brand new ways of playing with the Christmas party dress, teaming knitwear and long draping skirts for a textured silhouette, exhibiting a look for the fearlessly fashionable and on-trend. Elsewhere, colour blocking continues to be a predominant factor. High street shops show off dramatic gowns in royal blues, chimney pot reds and blacks painting their thick stripes on soft billowing skirts of the maxi dress.

Thanks to the success of shows like The Only Way is Essex, high, polished glam is a look to nurture and be proud of. Off the shoulder frou-frou gowns with layers and frills on the derriere and shoulders for maximum feminine impact are popular power frocks for the party season and false eyelashes flutter and complement perfectly.

While there is no doubt that the sparkling, glittering party dress is a die-hard must-have for this season, there are challengers, like Dries Van Noten, who play on simplicity. The Mary Portas collection at House of Fraser plays down the glitz and keeps gowns tunic-shaped and simple, allowing for individual decoration. One of the more in-vogue ways to spruce a dress up is to make use of chunky accessories. Big necklaces, gentleman’s gold watches and thick, gold chains in their layers are all current trends and can make a simple silky off the shoulder dress a thing of maximum fashion beauty.

Heels to elongate the legs and a clutch are the ideal frame work for showing off your party dress to its full potential. As autumn falls, it’s worth taking stock of the various looks that can be tweaked and tried out for those Christmas parties.

Are you running around the office? Do dart down the street dodging taxicabs to scuttle from one client to the next? Do you have to really hustle to make it from one meeting to the next? Try wedgie shoes for your work outfit. Doff your regular pumps and donn some cute leather wedgies, with a little height but less slip factor. Sometimes flats are just too informal for a woman’s business suit, and if your heels are killing your feet, then wedgies might do the job. (Unless your purse is big enough for a pair of emergency sneakers.)

Should you always strive to be in the middle ground? Are there fine lines of what is too casual, and what is too fancy for women’s business attire? Having to stay within such a margin can be really limiting and frustrating. If you are going to err, then always “err” on the side of being too fancy, than too casual. Rarealy will you get complaints regarding your work clothes for “looking too nice”.

Here are two examples. The flanel blouse is too casual of a work outfit even for casual friday. The silk blouse is ok, but could be too fancy in some situations. If you  are dealing with a client who dresses very casual you can make her uncomfortable if you dress to formal.

But the rule of thumb for women’s business attire is that overedressed is usually better than under dressed.