Late – as always! – with my work Christmas party outfit! But nevertheless, considering this year’s outfit was a little different from the usual, having to dress an entirely different body shape for a fancy occasion, I decided it was necessary to share. Even if we didn’t exactly get the best photos as we literally snapped them quickly on Ben’s phone before heading downstairs.
I talked a bit about the struggles of dressing for occasions while pregnant, particularly winter ones, in this post, and I have to admit, it hasn’t got any easier as I’ve got bigger! I’ve been trying to look at it with a positive spin – dressing my body at the moment is a challenge, and I like style challenges! I may not get to dress this shape again in future; it’s like styling an outfit for someone else. But that doesn’t make it any less tricky.
This year’s Christmas party theme was a sparkle ball. Fortunately it wasn’t too ball-like – I’d worried it might be all cocktail gowns and black tie – but I did need to find something that was dressy and sparkly, which is apparently harder than you think in maternity wear, especially when you like to get creative with your outfits too. If you’re interested, you can see some previous Bronco Christmas party outfits here: 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 (where you can also see 2015’s missing outfit!). So without futher ado, here’s 2018’s outfit!
In the end, I settled on something that was a little different to the usual but was also rewearable – this was a big factor in making the decision for me as I really don’t like buying something to only wear it one time. I decided to go for one stand out item and build the rest of the outfit around it. For this, I picked a mesh star-spangled top from a shop on Etsy called Lirika Matoshi – I’ve been wanting to buy something from this store for aaaages (seriously, have you seen these sunset tights?!) so I took this as the excuse to take the plunge. I’d debated over trying to make something similar myself as it’s, in reality, a very basic item, but in the end, I decided to just go for it. The top was perfect as it’s one size fits all, so it was loose and flowy, meaning I could tuck it in and not worry about fitting the bump into it! It did lose glitter and sparkle ALL over the place, but that’s to be expected really.
I had to wear something underneath the top as it was completely sheer mesh. I did at one point consider wearing a lace bralette, but when I tried on this option, I came up against a few obstacles: first was that it was a work Christmas party and this look turned out not to be all that appropriate; second was that my lace bralettes were even less appropriate than they used to be thanks to my recent chest growth and barely fit me any more – boo! I ended up wearing a plain pink maternity tank top from ASOS underneath which was almost skin tone for me so worked well. This and the skirt, again, an ASOS maternity item, have become versatile pieces for me while trying to dress my ever-expanding figure, so I was really glad that they could work for this event as well as everyday wear. I’ve been wearing the top layered under jumpers a lot to keep me warm (but also cooler than a T shirt – apparently I’m a warmer person when pregnant!). Plus the skirt is super stretchy jersey which meant more room for pigs in blankets for me!
And for a final flourish, the week before the Christmas party, I found a pair of sparkly gold Minnie Mouse ear strappy stilettos in Primark. I know – pregnancy plus strappy stilettos plus, well, me sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Fortunately I spent a lot of the night sitting down – I didn’t hit the dancefloor once sadly! – so it meant I could keep them on right until the end, even though I brought a pair of back up flats.
The party was a huge success overall too. Held at the Majestic in Harrogate again this year, we had good food then broke the Bronco bar bill record, even though I wasn’t even drinking! I definitely contributed with a few mocktails though rather than my usual lime and soda – the alcohol cravings (even though I barely drink at all anyway!) are still going strong so pretending I had a fancy cocktail made the night that bit more fun! I’d worried I might not make it very late that night as I was feeling pretty exhausted in the run up to Christmas in addition to pregnancy tiredness, but it was 1.30am before we decided to head off – we did have a room to stay in but ended up going home as I wasn’t sure how comfortable I was going to be in an unfamiliar bed, sleep was already evading me here!
Outfit Details
Sparkly Star Top: Lirika Matoshi | Tank Top (underneath): ASOS | Pencil Skirt: ASOS | Minnie Mouse Gold Strappy Heels: Primark
long black skirt