My Semi-Annual Outfit Post: Party Edition!

This weekend marked the annual Corcoran Fall Fete, where D.C.'s young (and pretty impressively stylish, we might add) dance the night away amongst the stately marble columns at the gorgeous Corcoran Museum in downtown D.C. We didn't need any arm-twisting to snag tickets this year – anytime we can break out the cocktail-wear is a-ok in our book! – and the party definitely lived up to its hip hype.

But we know you don't want to hear about how we shimmied our stuff to Lady Gaga for a large chunk of the evening. On to the outfit! Earlier in the week, I'd caught the amazing new Textile Museum exhibition on contemporary Japanese fashion, all pieces from the private wardrobe of longtime Issey devotee/Ohioan Mary Baskett. (On a randomly related note, WaPo fashion critic Robin Givhan has a great piece in today's paper on the exhibition and those who dare to wear avant garde Japanese lines.)

Once I saw the exhibit, my outfit choice for the Fall Fete was sewn up. Quite some time ago, I'd uncovered an amazing Yohji Yamamoto asymmetrical cocktail dress at a little consignment shop, and had been waiting for just the right occasion to debut it. I'm not even sure the slightly fuzzy picture below really does it justice: it's comprised of pliable, hoop skirt-esque boning that makes the dress bell out in this incredibly bouncy way. I paired it with a Elsa Peretti bone cuff from Tiffany & Co. — because really, with a dress like that, everything else has to be super-simple — some velvet slingbacks and a black patent vintage clutch. And so, the result:

{update: There's another pic of me on Washingtonian.com over here.}

In related news, I thought this cocktail hat that I stalked on the dance floor beyond rocked: