A Beautiful Silk Shirt for a Holiday Performance

Hello ladies! Today I’m sharing my first holiday look of 2019. Yay! And I’m linking up with my sweet friend and fellow style blogger, Susanne of Thompson Hill, to share my suggestions for what to wear to a holiday performance.

Susanne and I began blogging about the same time almost two years ago. She is an Italian mama with a rock star husband. Ha! I’m not sure she’d describe herself that way, but she is indeed a pretty Italian lady with grown kids and a professional musician for a husband. He also takes her photos (like my hubby!). Susanne and I enjoy talking on the phone occasionally and encouraging each other on in our little corners of the blogosphere. We’ve never met in person, but I hope to change that one of these days, especially since I now live much closer to her. (Susanne lives in the hills of West Virginia.) I hope you’ll drop in and check out Susanne’s holiday performance look after reading my post.

What to Wear to a Holiday Performance

As Susanne and I talked about this post we imagined attending a performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol or Handel’s Messiah. While I may not attend any of those this Christmas, I’ve attended performances of all of them at different times in the past. Those are some of my favorite holiday memories.

I love the idea of wearing something elegant and oh-so-special to a holiday performance. And if I have a velvet dress or pants in my closet, I’d definitely pull them out for such an occasion. But you can create a perfectly stunning look with just your favorite black slacks, the special accessories you have in your possession and a pretty silk blouse.

I had seen several YouTubers feature silk shirts from Lilysilk. At first I was a little hesitant to order a silk shirt from China. I feared long delivery times, high shipping fees, poor customer service and questionable quality. But the more I saw and heard, the more intrigued I became. And I noticed that everything I saw from Lilysilk looked exquisite and luxurious.

To my surprise, everything worked beautifully and smoothly with Lilysilk. Their website is customer friendly and full of great deals. (Right now they’re offering buy one and get one half price on my silk blouse and others.) My purchase shipped shortly after I had ordered it and arrived at my home within a few days. It was packaged beautifully. I could have worn the shirt straight from the box, but I did go over it with a steamer first.

I chose the Bow-Tie Neck Silk Blouse because I love the lush, full bow, which ties easily, by the way. I encourage you to check out this beautiful claret blouse on the Lilysilk website for the best representation. The color was a little tricky to capture in photos, especially at the time of day we were shooting. It’s divine, really.

By the way, the quality of this blouse is amazing. I also appreciate that Lilysilk has tried to cut out the middlemen that make purchasing silk so expensive. And they insure that the factory workers who produced their silk garments are well treated and compensated.

I wore my new claret Lilysilk blouse with my favorite black trousers. I love, love, love these pants. They’re comfortable, slimming and so well-constructed. Yes, they’re a little pricey. But cost-per-wear I’m already ahead of the game!

My blouse comes in nine beautiful colors, by the way. And Lilysilk has several other beautiful blouses to choose from as well. But they also have other silk garments (for men and women) and home items like silk sheets.

I accessorized my holiday performance look with special jewelry I already own. In fact, these are the pieces I purchased for my son’s recent wedding. My bracelet is no longer available, but this delicate one is a nice option as is this larger one. I love wearing my pave crisscross ring for special occasions now. My earrings are also sold out, but these climber drop earrings are a beautiful option as are these linear drop earrings (currently 50% off).

I also wore these gold strappy heels (similar) to my son’s wedding. Honestly, while the shoes served me well at his October wedding, I would have preferred my black pumps for this outfit. But I can’t find them since I moved! Argh! So I bought these black suede pumps yesterday for 50% off with my Ann Taylor/Loft credit card. (They’re 40% off without the store credit card.) I have several pairs of Ann Taylor shoes and absolutely love them.

I carried my crystal mesh bar clutch from my son’s wedding as well. I’m so glad I have a few nice accessories like these to help dress up a classic outfit for an evening out.

My coat is more than a few years old and I love it. Of course, living in Arizona for the past 15 years, I didn’t get to wear it very often. But I know I’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of it here in Ohio. It’s a full length black coat with a black faux fur collar by Jones New York. In fact, it’s similar to this one, which is currently considerably marked down.

I love the ease and classic lines of this holiday performance look. And I appreciate that the only thing I bought to complete it was a high quality silk blouse that will complement my wardrobe for years and years. That’s a gift I didn’t mind giving myself!

BEFORE YOU GO…

Don’t forget to check out how Susanne at Thompson Hill put together her holiday look for a Christmas performance. I can’t wait to read her post myself. Let’s all go say hello! Visit Susanne here.

But if you’re visiting Dressed for My Day from Susanne’s blog, welcome! I’m so glad you stopped by today. I’d love for you to look around a bit. You can…

• find out more about me here.
• check out my other fashion posts here.
• read yesterday’s post about how to put together beautiful holiday looks here.
• discover the answers to my frequently asked questions here.
• start with my home page here.
• take my What’s Your Style Essence? quiz here.
• join the Dressed for My Day community here.
• follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Thank you so much for stopping in today!

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Blessed for My Day

As we approach Thanksgiving, I’m continuing to think of the blessings God has given me. I’m so very grateful for the people in my life, including the other style bloggers I’ve met and befriended in the past two years. These are women who have encouraged me and even extended a hand to help me out here and there. Truly, cooperation trumps competition!

Why not take a moment to think of the people who bless and enrich your life? Maybe today would be a good day to tell them how grateful you are for their contribution to your success and happiness.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge… ~ 1 Corinthians 1:4-5