ECLECTIC

I love Hilary Onyon's sense of style - it is so individual and seemingly effortless. She is an artist and illustrator so it seems natural that those skills and instincts would transfer over to her taste for dressing. Notice the patterned tights with the bright dress and lace collar. Such a pretty mix for a pretty girl. And I love lace-up boots to toughen things up. You'd be surprised - a lace-up bootie compliments nearly everything.

VINTAGE LACE

Lace seems to be having a moment and we couldn't be more pleased. Lace is timeless and feminine. This dress is a vintage piece and, given that the television series Mad Men is having such an impact on the fashion world at the moment, what is old has become new again. A little cat-eye liner can give a nod to the dress's origin though. If you're wearing lace, keep the jewelry to a minimum - maybe one piece - to avoid looking too busy. Also keep in mind, if you are going to buy a vintage dress always have it tailored to fit you (unless by some stroke of luck you find one that magically fits like a glove). Find a tailor that has some experience working with vintage clothes or costumes, as the fabric and seams are more fragile on a vintage dress than on a modern garment. You don't want your pretty vintage dress falling apart on you! Even with the added effort of tailoring, the rewards are well worth it. With no worries someone will show up to the party wearing the same dress as you, you can truly be one of a kind.

BURBERRY

Photo Hanneli Mustaparta

This is Alexa Chung wearing a gorgeous Burberry Prorsum dress. I love everything about it - the color, the tiny collar and buttons, the shoulders and tie at the waist. I adore the subtle military feel of the whole thing. Perfection. In fact, I was in love with the entire Burberry Fall 2010 ready-to-wear collection. There were pretty dresses with tough military and shearling jackets, and the alluring mix of leather and lace. We Modest Girls could wear nearly everything in the line, given our bank accounts were large enough, but as that is probably not likely for most of us, we can still aspire to look like the Burberry girls (while recreating a look here and there of course).

PARTY SEQUINS 2 WAYS

So, depending on the party, how dressy you want to be, and the kind of crowd you run with, you may want to take sequins in a couple of different directions. In the first look we showed how the Modest Girl can get in on the biggest party-dressing-fashion-trend happening now. Some black tights and sky-high heels are all you really need to add to sequins because the dress is the star of the show. Any added jewelry could send you into pageant queen territory, in a bad way. In the second look we showed how you can tone the star quality of a sequin dress down. With lace-up booties and a vest you can really wear this to almost any party. Layer this look with some sweaters, scarf and an anorak and you have street wear...just saying...

Trick divulged - I actually had this dress made by my seamstress because I was having trouble finding a sequin dress with enough coverage. Me being a Modest Girl with determination to wear some sequins, I took the fabric and a couple photos to the seamstress and told her I just wanted a basic t-shirt dress made out of sequins. And there you have it, a sequin dress that is long enough and has some sleeves.

THE FLARE

OK, so obviously we love our skinny jeans and have no intention of abandoning them any time soon, but the newest fashion trend right now is the 70's style flared jean. This new breed of jean, although it is a throwback, is not synonymous to the bootcut jean of recent years past. Look for a jean that is tight through the hip and thigh and then flares extravagantly from the knee down. I've paired these here with a loose blouse, but just a simple not-too-long sweater would also do. Oh, how I'd die to steal a pair of these from my mom circa 35 years ago... but, alas she gave them all away. Still, I'm going to be scouring vintage and second hand shops on the off chance I may score a legit pair of 70's flare jeans.

BLUSH TONES

I think blush tones are universally flattering on every complexion and skin tone. Think of celebrities from Nicole Kidman to Zoe Saldana (who we have pictured here) to Frida Pinto. All gorgeous in blush tones. And there are fashion forward dresses with sleeves out there so don't settle. Some of our favorite go-to brands and labels that frequently have dresses with sleeves are Diane von Furstenburg, Alice+Olivia, BCBG, Catherine Malandrino, Marc By Marc Jacobs as well as our old stand-bys like Anthropologie, H&M and Zara. There are so many beautiful options out there for pretty party dresses, believe me! And we will be featuring many here on this blog. There is no need to sacrifice any amount of style to be a Modest Girl. The necklace is Badgely Mischka.