How to: wear a bridesmaid dress again

Woohoo! It's moving day!  Internet will be hooked up sometime on Monday, but fear not! I have scheduled posts to tide you over!

"And the best part is that you can wear again!" I definitely did not utter this to my bridesmaids, nor did my sister utter it to me and the rest of her bridesmaids, even though we both allowed our "girls" to choose their own dresses. Bridesmaid dresses sit in your closet until you need a zombie prom dress, or when your not-yet-conceived daughter wants to play princess.

I had a wedding celebration to attend while we were in the middle of our move. I had to decide what to wear a month in advance, and, like the rest of my wardrobe, it didn't go so well. I grabbed 2 bridesmaid's dresses - the brown one from my sister's wedding, and the purple one from my wedding (I bought an "in case of emergency" in case one of the girl's dresses showed up in the wrong colour - which did happen - and there wasn't enough time to get a replacement - which fortunately there was). While this isn't the dress I wore to the celebration (stay tuned Monday to see that outfit), I thought I'd do a "how to " on how to wear a bridesmaid's dress again.

I still really love the motion of the dress, and consider myself ahead of the trend, having worn this midi in 2007. It's a brown chiffon - the fabric trumped only by taffeta as the most "bridesmaid-y" fabric. It is easier to style a non-floor length dress for non-bridesmaid related wearing, so you may want to take the scissors to it (were you really going to wear it again at that length?) or, better yet, take it to a tailor. You did spend a pretty penny on it, after all.

There are four simple steps to take to take your dress from "bridesmaid" to "honoured guest".

1. Funk it up with trendy, sky high shoes - and in a different colour than the dress.

2. Add a belt, or swap out the sash for a belt. No bridesmaid wears a belt, unless it's made out of the same fabric as the dress.

3. Use a bold necklace. If I've learned anything, the majority of bridesmaids are given necklaces as a gift by the bride, and the majority of these necklaces are dainty silver or gold pieces. As a result, you're probably pretty safe with something big, in any colour. Since I only had a brown belt, I decided to go for a brown necklace.

4. Don't wear your hair in a curly updo.

There are other options - dye it, cut it into a skirt, or, my favourite option, layer it! Kasmira pairs her bridesmaid dress with a shawl. While I've tried to make a bridesmaid dress look more appropriate at a wedding or fancy event, don't forget to check out Sal's guide to make a bridesmaid or cocktail dress every day appropriate.