Sparkle for the Holidays!

Sometimes a girl just has to have some sparkle. During the holidays, this is imperative. You want to out-shine all the Christmas trees and holiday decorations that surround you, so here’s a predicament that I’ve personally run into. How do you wear jewelry with a scarf? You have to be so careful not to overdo it. I know I’ve probably been in Marie Claire sporting the black bar across my face many a time. So how does one wear a gorgeous Vera scarf with a gorgeous piece of jewelry? The answer is simple—PLAY! I had so much fun coming up with these solutions, so I know you will too if you get out your scarves and a few pieces of jewelry and have at it. Here are a few of my suggestions:

Here is an example of me wearing my Elephant Blanket scarf with one of my favorite necklaces I bought from Ten Thousand Villages (one of my favorite stores.) I’ve wrapped my scarf around and am wearing it like an infinity scarf and letting my necklace peek out just a little. I’m also wearing a turtleneck, which I’m not sure I would recommend wearing with a silk scarf. Silk holds in the heat! I had to take it off before the day was out, which I hated because it’s a fab scarf.

Here, I put on a necklace that has a similar color theme and tied my scarf in a cowl to go around the neck. To tie a cowl, fold your scarf in half diagonally so it's a triangle. Tie the two top corners together (the hypotenuse of the triangle) then, with the knot facing you, tie the last two corners around your neck. Again, the necklace is just peeking out, so it’s not crying for attention.

This is a way you can wear a scarf for a holiday party. It is a square scarf—this particular one is 36” square. If you tie the same side corners together on each side, you can stick your arms through and voila—a jacket! This would work with just about any type of jewelry, since the scarf isn’t competing for the neck space.

I tied the same scarf as a halter. You make a triangle with a square scarf, tie the hypotenuse corners together, slip that around your neck, and then tie the other two corners around your waist. This can be worn under a jacket or over a long sleeved shirt like a vest. I didn’t have any pearls, but that would be fabulous with this scarf.

This can be done with a sleeveless dress, or even if you’re wearing a vest over long sleeves. This is a square scarf rolled into a long piece and tied into a bow around the strap on the shoulder. I didn’t tie an initial knot when tying the bow because it would be too bulky. Again, play around and see what works for you.

This is one of my favorites! All I did was twist an oblong scarf around my long beaded necklace and tied a bow (without the initial knot, of course). When I talk about the initial knot, it’s the knot you tie before you tie the loops for the bow. I know lots of people tie their bows differently, so—do what works for you.

This is pretty much the same concept as the last picture. I wrapped an oblong scarf (it’s actually more of a wrap) around a long beaded necklace. This time, I left the back long so it has a sort of flowy trail behind you.

If you have a necklace pendant that is big enough, you can thread a scarf through it and wear it as a necklace or choker. I don’t have a pendant big enough, so I used my cocktail ring. In this instance, I used it as a choker with a long tail in the back.

This is the same thing as the last example, but instead of the tail in the back, I tied the tail to where one side is in front and one side is in back. See what you can do by just playing around? Super fun!

This is a square scarf used as a necklace with my same cocktail ring. The way to tie a square scarf to be a long piece like this is to fold it in half diagonally and roll it starting from the tip of the triangle to the base. That way you don’t have the edges showing. However, the edges showing could lend themselves to another look. Try it—see what you think.

This is a square scarf tied the way most people think of when they have a square scarf—a long piece just tied around the neck. However, I used a short beaded necklace to wrap around the neck part. I clasped the necklace inside the knot so you can’t see the clasp and it helps hold the necklace in place.

This scarf doesn’t have any jewelry with it, however I used a flower pin/clasp to dress it up a bit. My flower has both a pin and a clip on the back, so I don’t have to worry about putting holes in my silk scarves. This scarf is just a triangle tied around the neck to where the big part is in front and the ends are brought around the neck again and tied in the front. I clipped my flower to the knot.

This one is pretty easy to do. It’s similar to the example before, only you tie the ends in the back instead of bringing them back to the front. You let the scarf hang like a cowl and then put a long beaded necklace on. I made the necklace go around the cowl so it doesn’t squash it and make it lie flat.

I hope this encouraged you to get out your scarves and play around with accessorizing them. This is a perfect activity when you are stuck at home during a snow storm or on a girls’ night in. You could throw an accessory party and all bring some scarves and necklaces you may want to trade and tie them different ways. Sounds like an excellent blog topic to me! I’ll have to try it and get back to you. Until then, happy holidays and an awesome and glamorous New Year!