Best of Christmas Ball 2022
Mermaid's Christmas Ball makes its return - check out Concrete Catwalk’s best-dressed picks
Open Backs, bows, and more, everyone showed up for Christmas Ball. The rooms of Kinkell Byre were filled with all lengths and styles, but a majority stuck to the midi/long lengths with many different silhouettes. We saw the usual boys in kilts and tuxes with fun variations in color and jacket, showing that even the boys understood the assignment. The classic colors and patterns that dominated were red, green, gold, blue and a LOT of sequins. Sustainability has also proven to be extremely important this year, with a majority thrifting and borrowing dresses. I asked everyone three questions to dive into the style at Christmas Ball.
St Andrews absolutely nailed it with sustainability this year. This is incredibly important as fast fashion use in the past years has skyrocketed, and it is now our responsibility to reduce our consumption by forming new habits of reusing what's in our own closet, borrowing from friends and family, and thrifting. Liberty C (4th year), Bronwen R (1st year), and Robin M (2nd year) all wore sustainable dresses. Liberty thrifted her champagne-colored dress. The cowl neck and midi length are everything, along with the sparkly accessories she chose. A draped style was also commonly seen amongst the crowd — Liberty’s cowl neck was a simple but elegant eye-catching detail. Bronwen reused her Sweet Sixteen dress. The gold color and star-patterned details complimented the length and garnered a lot of attention with just the perfect touch of tulle. Robin borrowed a dress with a beautiful light blue floral pattern from her friend. Her dress was both festive and personal with the floral. These girls showed that a better choice for the environment certainly doesn't mean sacrificing the look you want.
Shoes are an essential part of an outfit, especially at a St Andrews ball. It all depends on the question of comfort or fashion and dress length. A lot of girls wore shoes they'd picked out to be reused for every ball, and while color varied from nude to black, they were almost exclusively versions of a low strappy heel to optimize comfort and fashion. Some girls with long dresses opted for flats hidden in the length. Something that came as a surprise to me was the lack of sneakers. Yes, Christmas Ball did have a dress code, but I usually notice an attachment to the comfort and familiarity of a white sneaker and a fancy dress in St Andrews. Overall, the shoe choices were just as sustainable as the dresses. Lots of rewearing, borrowing from Mom, and even charity shop kid's shoes.
The last question I asked revolved around what vibe people were going for. Was this for the theme? Just to dress up? While there was a dress code and theme for the ball, this is the only event in which these two things are followed and taken quite seriously. Grace R (3rd year), Stephanie A (1st year), and Katherine BK (4th year) nailed the open backs and color palette with their green, red, and gold dresses. Grace wore a stunning green dress with a draped back as the star of the show. The plunging neckline contributed to that classic shape. Stephanie wore a long red dress with a beautiful train. This perfect holiday dress was sure to capture the attention of quite a few. Katherine's gold dress had an elegant and classic feel and even better — it was thrifted. While some people did opt to just dress up for the occasion, the ones in the festive spirit perfectly accomplished the vibe of the night.
Christmas Ball is one of the most formal balls of the year in St Andrews. It comes with a theme and dress code that this year definitely abided by. The classic festive colors of red, green, gold, blue, and any variation of those with sequins were on grand display. The impressive amount of sustainable choices has marked an accomplishment in the movement away from fast fashion for our town.
Photos by Katy Fitzgerald