I was planning to go to the Red Dragon Ball this weekend. It’s to commemorate those with blood-borne diseases. Since I was recently cured of a lethal blood-borne disease, it felt particularly appropriate for me. The concept is everyone wears red. One of my girlfriends gave me a bright red dress with chiffon sleeves and red sequins all over that is twice as fabulous as anything else I own. I normally don’t do fabulous, but just this once. She gave me a red headwrap to go with the dress that I shall wear Bessie Smith style. I got the last pair of red fishnets on clearance in the store. All set, except for accessories…
The problem is finding any decent red pumps at all, let alone a purse to match. My usual reliable black ones won’t do because I feel everything has to brighten up. My favorite Goth grrl black won’t work for this occasion. Blacks and golds are two colors that are easy to match, ever notice that? But reds are so hard to match; there are so many different reds and they don’t all get along well together. It occurred to me that it would be easy and maybe even better, color accent-wise, to go with gold accessories.
What would you do if you were planning to go all-red?
Do you have any really swank black shoes? I think black goes great with red. If you don’t have black shoes that are fancy enough, this could be your excuse to buy a pair. Every woman should have a really hot pair of black shoes or boots, and you just recovered from a serious illness, so you deserve a treat.
You gentlemen are welcomed to dress as your favorite red fantasy/SF character, and may the proletariat be with you, comrades.
Rubystreak, so glad you of all screennames decided to post in keeping with the theme here, I like black accessories just fine for my usual Gothy range of deep wine/burgundy/maroon/magenta shades. I have the perfect pair of black suede boots that I want to get the most of while it’s still winter, because suede is out in the spring. It’s just that this dress is utterly screaming bright red like a Chinese flag on a fire engine in the noon sunlight. Goth grrl feeling called to totally brighten up just this once. This is the sort of occasion shimmery eyeshadow was made for. I would consider shimmery eyes too garish for almost any other occasion…
cher3, you’re absolutely right. I took another look at the dress and saw it has silver sequin embroideries (with teeny green accents). I always wear silver jewelry anyway; if I went gold with the accessories, it would mean buying a whole set of gold jewelry too. Whoa. I like red with silver, because together they project a slightly weird, edgy energy while still looking chic. That decides it. Silver matching accessories are almost as easy to find as gold. (I don’t know why everything has to be bronze now, though?) Thanks for helping me figure this out!
I always welcome further tips… No fear of the learning curve.
Some touches of white would help soften the fabulousness of your dress; a black shrug will tone it down. If you’re intent on all red, I’d say try for a darker shade of footwear. Could you upload a picture of the dress? That’d be enormously helpful.
(Or, if you have a couple of hours to blow, a search at The Fashion Spot should give you some more ideas. Even better, start this thread over there.)
I have three pairs of red shoes and a red bag as well and I don’t think they are that hard to find. I think red shoes are very cool. I’m often goth girl black like yourself but really like the black top, blue denim skirt/trousers and red shoes combo. Even an all black outfit with red shoes is quite cool if you match it with a red bag or bangle or whatever just so that there isn’t just one red thing.
So basically, I would use the excuse to buy a few cool red things and go all red on the night and then I would then get more use out of the red accessoiries by teaming them up with the everyday black once the ball was over.
These are all just my personal ideas of what looks good, though. I’ve never been accused of being a fashion expert so please take my advices with a pinch of salt.
I’d go with a metallic, personally. Some shades of red go better with gold, some with silver, so choose the one that really makes it zing. And seriously consider posting a picture, please? Red fishnets sound very cool indeed.
Flodnak has a point, whether or not the dress looks best with silver or gold depends on whether it’s more of a warm based red or a cool based red. Most likely it’s a cool based one, being as you mentioned it has silver sequin accents, but try it with both, just to make sure. Bring the dress with you when you’re shopping for accessories, to make sure you’re getting the perfect metallic to set it off.
