Outfit of the Day: Otome-ish Outfit for Tree Decorating

As you may or may not have noticed, I rather enjoy Christmas. I also really enjoy decorating for Christmas. It's somehow become my job every year to put together the holiday decorations at my parents' house, and this year was no exception.

The tree you see there? That's this year's tree. And, because I'm me and rather fail sometimes at being "practical" in the traditional sense of the term, I decorated while dressed up. With all the Christmas decorations I've been posting, I thought I should share some of the pictures I've taken of decorating along with my outfit.

These are a couple of weeks old because I've been busy with the holiday season as a whole - decorating, family events, making gifts, and attending my cousin's wedding - but I hope you'll like them anyway.

I mentioned my love of nutcrackers last year during the holidays, and when I was putting them out this year I realized I hadn't yet taken a picture of them. That seemed rather an oversight on my part, so I took a picture and wanted to share that with you.

This is my troop! I affectionately call them "my troop" or "my boys" in conversation and, as you can see, there are rather a lot and they fall into a very classic style. While I have a few that are a little different - one of my nutcrackers has skis, one is a matryoshka doll, and one is part of a music box with a slowly-turning Clara - they are all really traditionally styled and low on the glitter.

This is probably one of my favorite ways to wear this dress. You've seen this one on my blog before, and I know it looks very different when worn this way. That's part of what I love about this dress: it can be worn so many different ways and look like completely different dresses.

It's basically a quarter circle when seen flat, so if it's not belted it turns into this delightfully comfortable A-line dress. Plopping a cardigan over it further reinforces the shape I want to go with. This is definitely not a Lolita way to wear the dress, and while it looks a bit like otome kei, I am not comfortable labeling it strictly as such. Mostly it's just a comfortable way to wear the dress and perfect for an afternoon spent wrestling with garland and crawling through the tiny crawlspace in my house.

Outfit rundown:

Dress: Vintage
Lace collar: Vintage
Brooch: Vintage
Cardigan: Secondhand
Tights: Legale (purchased at Gordman's)
Shoes: Target

I hope the holidays are going well for you. They've been rather chaotic for me thus far, but dressing up and celebrating has made the season much better.