10 Important Tips To Be A Ladyperson At The Holidays, As Told By Ads
Advice straight from the pages of your favorite magazine.
Dari Ya / Shutterstock The holidays call for getting all dressed up and going to parties.
This year may feel a little different because we are all stuck at home, but that doesn't mean you can't look your best for your Zoom call with friends, family, and coworkers.
Another way to get in the holiday spirit is with advertisements we see this time of year. And many companies have created ads that target women who want to feel more lady-like this holiday season.
If you're looking for tips on how to bring out your femininity this holiday season, look no further. These funny holiday ads are all you need to find some inspiration. Consider them your guide to being a girl this Christmas season. Take notes, ladies.
1. Stay cozy — wear a baby.
If you play your cards right, your sensitive, goateed dad/boyfriend/professor will reward you with a pair of socks made out of his extra sweater sleeves.
2. Flaunt your complexity.
Show off all your many dimensions at once. When planning outfits for your holiday soirées, think, "I'm an heiress and an Italian professor at this upscale tropical funeral."
3. Represent feminine softness in a hard, masculine world.
All around you are skyscrapers made of bricks and iron and glass and ouchy things. They're all pointy and hard, but not you.
You're a soft, pink flower in a gentle haze of light. Everything around you is blooming because you breathed springtime into winter. You're a superfresh candy-pants sugar-blossom.
4. If you're truly hot, you won't get cold.
You're outside. It's winter. There's snow falling around you. But also? You don't feel cold.
Whatever you do, don't hide your light under a bushel by putting a coat over your party outfit. Just drag it along behind you in the snow and use the oil on your legs to fuel warm thoughts.
Tell yourself the sequins on your dress are tiny hot plates. Imagine fire. Visualize volcanoes.
5. Sit like this while waiting for the valet at the end of a holiday party.
What? Oh, yes! That's my silver Ford Fiesta. Pull it 'round, will you, Jeeves?
6. If you insist on being serious, you must be serious at all times.
Tired of all that frivolity? Here's your alternative: If you're serious, you can't have hair — so slick it back. Also, no makeup. Only a black smock, white handbag. No colors. No jewelry. Earrings aren't serious. No smiling.
Your expression should imply that you're as serious as a heart attack. Ready to be jolly again?
7. Live every moment like a dream sequence.
In Cartier's "Winter Tale" ad series, kittens who live in the sky (leopards? panthers? I don't know — I get the wild cats all mixed up) sneak up on gift-wrapped luxury items. It's cute because the cats are babies, but it's sad because if they're in the clouds... I guess they're dead?
So, dead baby cats. But lots of diamonds. The point is, if you're a majestic angel-kitten, heavenly trinkets are yours for the stalking.
8. Do a sports thing, because that's funny.
Topless, smirking handbag-boxing ladies with boy haircuts make a statement. Are you making a statement?
Be bold. Have short hair and do something sportsy while also wearing your purse as a bra. This is crazy, and so are you.
9. Wear makeup like a deviant.
You know what those fringy things are at the edges of your eyelids? Eyelashes. You know what it means if you put dark stuff on them? You're a total perv. Slap some red on your lips too, and it means you're the Lady Mayor of Kinktown, USA.
Go ahead, wear a little foundation, you dirty, filthy, nasty thing, and when you show up to your office party wearing all this cosmetic substance on your face, we'll know exactly what memo you're sending.
Tie me up, tie me five percent down like this quarter's earnings, know what I mean?
10. Ignore the voice of reason.
Ahh, the warm, snuggly comfort of over-the-knee suede boots and a chunky cashmere turtleneck on a brisk winter day. But no pants. Never pants.
This look is as adorable as it is impractical. And you want this impossible dream, don't you? You do, because a world where you can wear the tall slouchy boots and the big fuzzy sweater and nary a stitch to cover your butt is a world where practicalities mean nothing and there are no limits.
When you ignore the rules, you get what you want. Take only desserts from the buffet of life, girl. Leave the vegetables to the losers. Pants are for suckers. Merry Christmas.
All photos: imissyouwheniblink.com
Mary Laura Philpott is a writer and author of 'I Miss You When I Blink,' the nationally bestselling memoir-in-essays. Her writing has been featured frequently in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Paris Review Daily, O The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, and others.