It’s holiday party season, and that means everyone has an excuse to get dressed up like they’re going to some Hollywood awards show (maybe not quite as fancy as the Oscars, but definitely on the level of the MTV Movie Awards, which I’ve always thought is so much fun …did you ever see the Mission Impossible parody with Ben Stiller as Tom Crooz(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjmrMOroCRE) … Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise together at the end, dressed alike, both laughing Tom Cruise’s slightly maniacal laugh, is priceless).

Anyway, it’s always tempting to get a new dress, which I did this year, and what I discovered is that a lot of the options out there required me to adopt some tricks of the trade that the celebrity stylists use.  The trend seemed to be towards very deep V-cuts and high slits, and for an office party, you have to make sure everything stays in place.  So I decided not to limit myself to something way conservative and instead ripped a page out of Jennifer Lopez’s book circa 2000 when she wore that green Versace dress to the MTV Video Music Awards (fun fact, this dress got so many searches on the Internet that it was the motivation for the Google images search feature):

I ended up falling in love with this white pleated dress with accompanying grosgrain belt by Galvan that I got off of Forward by Elyse Walker (http://www.fwrd.com).  It has a deep V-cut and a high slit, so I had to make liberal use of double-sided tape to make sure I remained office appropriate.  My go-to brand is called Matchsticks by Commando, which I get from Shopbop (http://www.shopbop.com) (although it’s available at a number of stores):

Of course, double-sided tape is not easy to get on.  It sticks to almost anything, including itself (making just a messy tape ball), and peeling it off both sides of its backing requires patience.  Make sure to give yourself an extra 20 minutes or so to do it without pressure or frustration, and bring along some extra just in case you get too crazy on the dance floor and need to re-apply.  It’s also good to have a partner in crime who can monitor the situation and give you a signal (mine was the nose touch from the movie The Sting) if you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Commando also makes a lot of other good foundation items, like Low Beams if you can’t wear a bra or seamless thongs if you’re wearing a tight skirt, so if you want to go out with the confidence of JLo in a dress cut down to her navel, you should check them out.

Happy partying!!!!