It’s a widely held belief that certain pieces of clothing should be reserved for special occasions. In my own life, fur stoles that I’ve found in vintage boutiques in Rome, decades-old lace dresses that I’ve tracked down in Paris and pre-loved Manolo Blahnik heels that were sourced in Osaka lie in wait for their turn in the spotlight. Kept hidden in garment bags and shoe boxes at the back of my wardrobe, these whispers of glamour sit patiently until an opportunity, like an invitation to a lavish soirèe with a compulsory dress code that would deem my everyday uniform inappropriate, say, strikes. But what keeps these moments of opulence separate from ordinary instances, if not ourselves?
Fittingly, as I was pondering this very statement, perennial British It girl Alexa Chung was speaking to fashion designer and psychoanalyst scion Bella Freud on her podcast Fashion Neurosis about the same topic. When asked if certain clothes make her feel better when she’s low, Chung responded that she instead believes in a philosophy of "total image commitment". The question, then, isn’t whether to dress up or not. Instead, like Chung espouses, it’s why we have stopped dedicating ourselves to the pursuit of joyful extravagance through what we wear altogether.
"Dressing up has shifted from a strict social obligation to a flexible tool," explains Dr Carolyn Mair, a professor and author of The Psychology of Fashion. "Where clothing once signalled class and respectability, it’s gradually become a way to express individuality." An excellent case to demonstrate this is Matthieu Blazy’s debut runway show for Chanel.
To the tune of "Rhythm Is a Dancer", South-Sudanese Canadian model Awar Odhiang took a victory lap to close the French Maison’s spring/summer 2026 collection, wearing a drop-shoulder ivory satin T-shirt and a candy-coloured feathered skirt reminiscent of dahlia petals. The thumping base, grand setting and juxtaposition between the "mundane" and the label's over-the-top codes ushered in a newfound era of unabashed freedom and self-expression.
Credit: Chanel Spring/Summer 2026 via YouTube.
"Today, dressing up is tied to aspiration and self-esteem," Mair adds. "It’s part of how many of us curate a public-facing identity—the increasing link between who we are, how visible we are and the ways we use clothing to communicate." Celebrity stylist and former fashion director Gabriella Karefa-Johnson echoes this sentiment. "Dressing up means dressing to be perceived," she says. "It has very little to do with pomp, circumstance or occasion. Dressing up can mean anything from wearing black-tie attire to a dive bar to putting on non-elasticated pants for a lazy, hungover weekend. It's a state of mind and an act of discipline."
Personally, I can’t think of a better ethos to adopt as we enter 2026. The new year always brings a moment of self-assessment and reflection, making it a prime chance to hone your personal style. As Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Annie Dillard so correctly put it, how you spend your days is how you spend your life, and I don’t want mine defined by the dust that’s collected on my cherished items because circumstances have never been right to show them off.
From tastemakers who do it well to the fundamental tools required to enhance an outfit and make it something more impactful, welcome to the art of dressing up.
"It’s a lifestyle, and I’m locked into it," says model, presenter and influencer Emma Winder about her devotion to dressing up. Whilst her career certainly allowed her to err on the side of extravagance with her clothing, she explains that getting dressed up is something that requires care and discipline. "I tend to plan six key looks at a time per month, along with some filler looks, so I’m able to keep consistent with my style and whip up outfits instantly without feeling the pressure," she says.
To get to the point where dressing up is ritualistic, and, better still, intrinsic, there are a few reliable style principles that you can call upon. Paramount is considering adding contrast to disrupt uniformity, like throwing on a pair of kitten heels with your leggings, or adding a decorative rosette to break up a Savile Row-inspired suit jacket. "Lean into tension," Karefa-Johnson notes, adding, "disparate elements often collide to create visual harmony."
The easiest way to do this is with colour, shape and texture—all of which will already be at your disposal through your existing wardrobe. Toying with these facets is a powerful way not only to break out of your comfort zone but also to piece together an ensemble that is more aesthetically striking. Of course, you can also inject these components into your look through accessories. "They can transform even the plainest outfit; they completely shift the vibe," says Edie Rose, a stylist and founder of Koroma Archive, a curated vintage fashion studio in London.
Gilded brooches can add an ornate feel to casual garments, whilst satin opera gloves refine any mundane item, courtesy of their intrinsic elegance and attachment to well-heeled socialites. In the same vein, a floor-length coat, a pillbox hat or a swathe of lace styled across the waist like a scarf never goes amiss.
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Developing your own style language is also about rewriting conventions. Fashion has a firm lexicon for a reason—design is an applied art, after all—but these strict codes do allow space for subversion and experimentation, something that industry stalwarts like John Galliano and Jonathan Anderson do so well. Approaching this proverbial rebellion with humour and a deft hand is the simplest way to encroach on the fixed language around style; a topic that has encouraged so much discourse over the past few months.
"People have made themselves the judge, jury and executioner of other people’s wardrobes," explains Chani Ra, a podcaster, fashion commentator, content creator and personal stylist. "The only faux pas is forcing yourself to dress in a way that you don’t really want to." Social media has certainly played a major role in enforcing rigid binaries for how people dress. The inescapable hyper-accelerating trend cycle and niche micro-aesthetics that come and go so frequently act as a proxy for people looking for identity in a vacuum of endless scrolling. "I don’t agree with imposing rules on how we dress or policing each other’s style," states Karefa-Johnson. “Dressing in accordance with any 'fill-in-the-blank-core' is the ultimate no-no," she attests. "Style is not meant to be categorised into easily replicable rubrics. Fashion has become too tribalised in that sense. Dress like you, dress for you."
So, disobey a little along the way; wear the sequins in the daytime, pair the archival band T-shirt with your prim sheer skirt and, at minimum, mix ditsy prints with bolder patterns as much as possible.
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In saying this, there are true experts in the field who can always be called upon for inspiration. It’s not enough to replicate the combinations and components that you gravitate towards, though. Instead, consider this an opportunity to examine and interrogate exactly why these silhouettes draw you in. Miuccia Prada said it best in a 2020 conversation with Raf Simons. "Study, study, study," she began. "Learn, watch movies, look at art, [read] literature. Clothing serves to make you live better; it's not an abstract job, it has to be useful and help define your personality. It's an instrument for your life."
For a crash course, consider the work of legendary costume designer Patricia Field in The Devil Wears Prada, the glamour imbued in iconic looks from the Golden Age of Hollywood, like Breakfast at Tiffany’s or The Great Gatsby, or revelatory paintings by François Boucher or Francis Bacon. Acquaint yourself with the women who inspire your favourite designers, including muses like Lee Radziwill, Edie Sedgwick, Bianca Jagger and Betty Catroux. If knowledge is the foundation, liberation and a celebration of clothing is the outcome.
"Dressing up, like anything aesthetically based, requires creativity," says Karefa-Johnson. "To many of us, that sort of creative expression comes naturally, but to those for whom it is less instinctual, it is easier to delegitimise the practice than push oneself to be creative. That is not to say that fashion is not vapid. A lot of the time, it is incredibly so, but frivolity denotes a lack of seriousness, and if there is anything that fashion should be, it’s serious."
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Putting this into practice is another thing entirely, but it doesn’t have to be a high-stakes setting for you to look your best. In fact, the whole ideology about getting dressed up is to seize every surrounding—big or small—as a backdrop for your finest attire. "Dressing up should feel like your highest level of presentation in that moment," Ra says.
Consider this "your highest errand look", as she puts it, outlining a principle that reclaims quotidian contexts as an opportunity for play. "One day, it could mean adding your favourite bag to a tracksuit. The next, it could mean wearing a gown. It has to match the day’s activity, but there is always an opportunity to do whatever it is in style." Because why are we so conditioned to savour our designer bags or gorgeous dresses for something so exceptional?
If anything, the modern age’s precarious nature should be an invitation to slip away from reality, albeit briefly, and escape into a world of roaringly opulent style. You might get a few odd looks wearing strings of pearls in the tinned foods aisle, or a feather-trimmed jacket with heeled ballet flats in the pub, sure. But at least you'll know you’ll look damn good doing it.
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Ultimately, the act of dressing up in all its forms—subtle, daring, outlandish or extreme—will be refined through habit. Strengthening your ability to defy the norm is a skill that will only come with time and practice. So, to truly lean into this mode of defiant excessiveness, the only thing you need to sharpen is yourself. The ultimate tool to have in your arsenal is confidence. "When you feel good—read: comfortable in your own skin—you’ll radiate the kind of confidence that amplifies any look," asserts Karefa-Johnson. And Rose agrees. "Anything worn with confidence naturally has its own 'oomph', she adds.
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In all this, I can’t help but think back to an iconic episode of Sex and the City, in which a high-rolling socialite, Lexi Featherstone, drunkenly blurts out at a party, "Whatever happened to fun?" Her appearance on the show was short-lived, yet her point remains and was picked up by several designers this season. Whatever did happen to fun? To getting dressed up for the sake of it? To throwing caution to the wind? To capturing every second instead of waiting for the right occasion to wear what we treasure most?
Hegemony in fashion has certainly penalised individualism, but does that mean we should willingly allow this conformity? If I’ve gleaned anything from this exercise, it’s that clothing genuinely does possess the ability to uplift. It’s not just the case that wearing something you like might lead to a compliment that makes your day, but the practice of deriving pleasure from the daily routine of dressing is a powerful gesture in itself. "Research shows that clothing can influence mood and mindset," Mair notes. "When dressing up is approached as a source of enjoyment rather than a bid for approval, it is an act of agency which is especially valuable when many things feel out of our control."
I, too, have begun taking small measures to embrace my beautiful possessions in every situation. I’ve swapped my high-street knitted gloves for a mid-wrist leather pair, traded my sloppy pyjama bottoms for a pair of lace-trim satin trousers and even vowed to stop wearing flat shoes on a night out as much as possible. How’s that for "total image commitment"? Even as I write this, I’ve taken cues from Carrie Bradshaw by sitting at my laptop wearing a pendant necklace that hangs down to my navel and a textured coat that dominates my space.
Fundamentally, dressing up is an act of self-experimentation, but also of self-care. "I care about how I look, which I don’t think we’re meant to say, but I care!" Ra concludes. "Dressing up to me is an opportunity to be experimental and roll the dice. It’s the idea that the next outfit could be the best or worst you’ve ever looked, and there’s a thrill in that!"