Sequins used to have a 9pm watershed, like sex and swearing on telly. You wore them to parties, for nights when you were not just out but out-out, but they were decidedly NSFW. Now that you can wear jeans to parties and trainers to fancy restaurants, those kind of rules don’t really apply. I’m not suggesting a sequined skirt is a 16-hour desk-to-dinner look, but it could definitely do a Saturday lunch – possibly even brunch, although be prepared to drink mimosas. (That is totally going to happen in this skirt, so you may as well face facts.)
This is a shop-your-wardrobe opportunity, because you can wear the same sequins for the daylight hours as you used to wear for after dark – you just wear them in a different way. The skirt I am wearing here is one of mine that used to be a dress, a long time ago. It was a simple, stretchy, short-ish dress with spaghetti straps that I used to wear out-out with ankle-strap sandals and a denim jacket. I stopped wearing it like that a while ago. I’ve little truck with rigid rules about what’s age appropriate, but I don’t think clinging determinedly to a look that represents who you were a decade ago is all that healthy. You and your wardrobe can evolve and mature without going full pelt into elasticated-waistband loungewear.
Anyway, I knew I would never wear that dress again, but just as I was warming up the Marie Kondo pep-talk-to-self, I realised this too-short dress was a perfect length for a skirt. So I took it to my lovely dry cleaner and he cut the top few inches off (along with the label, so I have no idea any more where I bought it from) and, voilà, a perfect new cocktail-length skirt that came ready-infused with good vibes and cost a fiver.
Are your perfect daytime sequins hiding in the party-clothes bit of your wardrobe? You don’t need to chop down a dress for it to function as a skirt: if the length works, just wear a sweater or a velvet T-shirt over the top. Clothes for going out-out don’t tend to get worn as often as you’d like, what with cocktail funds not earning themselves and having to get up in the morning. So if a sequined skirt can pair up with a chunky knit and ankle boots for a weekend lunch, or a sequined vest can slip under a ribbed cardigan to jazz up the jeans you are wearing to go shopping – that’s a win-win. Look on the bright side of winter: after-dark dressing now starts at teatime. Add a cosy knit and chunky shoes, and let the good times roll, early.
• Jess wears chevron jumper, £300, tabithawebb.co.uk. Skirt, Jess’ own. Velvet heels, £89, whistles.co.uk.
Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Samantha Cooper at Carol Hayes Management.
