The sad truth is I haven’t managed to go to a single holiday party this year. Usually, once Halloween has passed, my shopping focus becomes finding a piece-de-resistance to wear to a Christmas party. Last year it was a gorgeous vintage dress with a boatneck velvet top and long flowing paid skirt. The year before it was a drop waist satin dress from the 1960s. The year before that it was a skin-tight gold satin Karen Millen dress. That I remember each item in such detail tells you how important holiday dressing is to me. Not being able to go to a Christmas party wasn’t going to stop me.

I bought this dress on Swap.com back in October, but I had actually had it on my favorites list for almost a month beforehand. I didn’t immediately think of it as a holiday dress. The problem I was actually trying to solve was the lack of red in my closet. I tend to get into the habit of buying the same colors over and over again. (I still have a personal kibosh on buying blue blouses and white sneakers for a while.)

Red has always been the color I get the most compliments on. I recently sold my favorite red evening gown, so I was feeling the void in my heart for something crimson and elegant. As preppy as J.Crew’s reputation is, they’re a brand I know I can rely on for glamour, so when I saw this dress on Swap, I knew it would look as good as the pictures of it on a mannequin, if not better. When I first unpacked it, it was so wrinkled that I didn’t even realize it was silk, especially because it was a heavier silk than I’m used to. Getting my dry cleaning back a week later was quite a surprise. What’s this glorious red slinky thing? Turns out $19 was an even better deal than I thought, especially considering J.Crew silk dresses go for about $198. I’ll take 90% off any day, but especially for Christmas!