I’m so excited to finally share these two outfits on the blog! I may have mentioned this festive plaid skirt I found in New York, but I never got a chance to shoot it. I wore it while I was on my New York trip, and again this week in Austin so figured I could at least get an iPhone pic and share it here. It was the perfect festive plaid color scheme featuring navy, green, red, ivory and black. The black was key for making it a worthwhile purchase for me, because I knew I’d be able to style it with all my best black basics – for example, this cashmere turtleneck and my favorite boots this season! The skirt is pretty much sold out online, but it was fully in stock at the Ralph Lauren Store on Madison Avenue in New York if you wanted to call and order it. While the color scheme is obviously ideal for Christmas, I plan to wear it through January and February! It’s just such a cute classic for this time of year that I know I’ll wear again and again.

The second outfit is one I’ve been organizing for awhile now. I found this fabulous sequin and feather trim top at The Conservatory in Highland Park Village several months back, and have been dying to wear it ever since! As you can see, the top is slightly cropped, so I knew I’d need a very high waisted pair of pants or a skirt to style with it. Originally I was hoping to find a skirt, but didn’t have any luck! All the white skirts I came across looked too casual or too summery. Pants weren’t easy to find either, but I did find some chic (but pricey) pairs on MYTHERESA! I think these pants were meant for bridal looks, but they were the perfect match for my statement top. I’m actually so happy I went with pants because it got me to step out of my comfort zone! While doing some holiday shopping in November, I spotted these silver velvet pumps by one of my very favorite shoe brands, Gianvito Rossi. Most of my evening shoes are black or gold, so these pumps seemed like a no brainer for holiday/winter looks and I wasn’t even thinking about this outfit… and then they just so happened to match the top perfectly! Talk about a Christmas miracle. While I think this outfit would look incredible on New Year’s Eve, I’m a little hesitant to wear the white with the risk of spills! I decided to wear this look for our fancy Christmas Eve dinner – we have a tradition of dressing up in cocktail attire for a nice sit down dinner at home. It was so fun to break out this outfit finally, and I was thrilled I was able to get a photo of it for you guys! What I love about this look is that it doesn’t *scream* holiday. I can totally wear it in the spring and summer for an event or party, and just swap out the shoes for heeled sandals! And if I do eventually find a white skirt that would work with it, I’d snag that too to mix it up.

PS: For the rest of my time in Austin, I pretty much lived in my velvet sleeveless Nap dress because it ended up being SO warm!! I packed so many sweaters and ended up having to borrow some tops from my mom and sister to wear with jeans. I don’t know why, but I never seem to pack the right stuff when I come home to Austin… this happens a lot!