Luau Party Styling – the Do’s and Don’ts

Since G.p dragged me out of the house for some for some late night caffeine boost, I’m all up and kicking now. Goodluck work!

Anyway, remember that Luau themed party I hosted last April?! As I’ve told you , I helped some friends come up with their outfits. So it means a week worth of shopping – Landmark, SM Makati and Glorietta to the max!

Sadly, it also means a week-worth of boosting their confidence. My friends are the prettiest in the office. Coming from someone who’s uber laitera, it should mean a lot! But they are also the shy type and their confidence are below sea level. Honest! So I’m very much happy that I was able to help them improve their fashion sense and at the same time, helped them love and appreciate their body as well as their beauty. Fashion godmother ang peg!!

So while I discuss the laborious styling that I did for my friends (insert sheepish grin here), let me also give you some tips on Luau styling. Feelingera much! Eh blog ko to bakit ba?!

When they heard Luau, my friends immediately thought of flowery dresses! Can’t blame them. Everyone does. And so… here’s my first Luau Tip:

Note that we opted for a long flowy dress on animal prints for Cor. Also, her dress got that cute chest detail which looks so chic and very “I’m off for the beach!” hype. Perfect for Luau. Another great example is our fashyown friend Joyce who went all Zebra’ey on her long dark brown dress. Very gorgeous. Just one more extra tip for those who’ll go for animal prints, make sure you choose earth colors or better stay on the black and white side. Animal prints plus vibrant colors is a no-no! Teh! Circus ang peg natin?!

For Nikki and Jin, we also ditched the flower pattern but went for colors instead! And then another fashion tip:

The problem with Luau is that they could easily make you look like a Bed Sheet, Sofa Covers or the typical, curtains! Really, the trick here is choosing the prints and the colors. One wrong move and you’ll be a walking Sofa all night which we all doesn’t want. So if you’re quite a bit hesitant on the prints that you want, you may ditch the prints and go for colors like what I did. Colorful striped top shouts Luau as well. But if you’ll find a piece that has both colors and lovely prints, then by all means GO!

Another major fashion fail for Luau is wearing Midi’s. Luau dresses, specially if they are flowery has the big tendency to look like your Mom’s duster! So it’s best if you wear an ankle-length dress or if you want to show off your newly waxed legs, wear something that shows your knee.

While most petite girls are not encouraged to wear long dresses, there are styles that would look good on them. See Cor for example. She really wants to wear a long dress but she’s afraid she’d look smaller because of it. But a nice flowy dress like the one that she’s wearing is perfect. The dress made her look tall actually.

But how about if you’re really not into dresses?! Can you still come to a Luau Party?

As I’ve mentioned on my last post, since I want to stand out and be me, I ditched the dress idea and went for shorty shorts instead. Pair my shorts with a colorful top and I’m all set. I wore a bikini that matches my shorts so just to minimize the colors that’s already on my palette.

Aem on the other hand came to the venue not prepared! She’s supposed to wear some board shorts or something. And of course, I didn’t let her. It’s great that I came to the venue with almost my entire beach closet. Just in case on of my ladies had a fashion emergency. I let Aem wore my white beach pants (so see through that she has to wear a boy leg underneath) and Cor has these black see-through top. Matchy-matchy and perfect!

I would usually bring my beaded bracelets on the beach. And for Luau, they are also a great addition to your entire look. Colorful beaded bracelets do wonders of course! Although, there are dresses that doesn’t need further accessories. Like Jin’s and Cor’s dresses which both had wooden beads on the chest. No more necklace for them both. I just put dangling earrings on them. Jin' wore my colorful beaded earrings to match her dress while Nikki opted for the bronze dangling earrings to match her hairstyle. Cor ditched the accessories because her neck piece is kinda elaborate already. And of course, I achieve my Jasmine Trias peg thanks to Jin’s flower.

What you wear on your feet actually defines the entire outfit. Make your feet bare by wearing flip flops or strappy sandals or cover your feet with colorful slip-ons. Whatever you prefer, you can never go wrong with them.