It’s that time of year again: it might only be September, but soon invites to Christmas parties and seasonal balls will be cluttering up your calendar, and you’ll be out and about looking for a suitably fantastic dress.

If you’re on the prowl for something truly spectacular this Christmas, you’d do well to take the following three tips into account when sizing up a dress:

Pick a Colour That Suits the Season

Looking back, it seems like Christmas 2012 was all about things that sparkled and things that shone – sequins, glitter, metallic fringes and even mirrored edges were all on trend, but that’s certainly not shaping up to be the case this year. While there’s nothing wrong with dresses like that, they do tend to look a little dated now. More importantly, sparkly glitter tends to draw the eyes away from any accessories that you might be wearing; creating an unfocused look with no clear draw and, if you’re all covered in sparkles, there isn’t really any space for bold patterns or lines to really speak their piece.

Instead, try to go with neutral shades that won’t drown out the rest of your ensemble – these colours allow you to make more subtle statements with your accessories, and allow the cut of your dress to more freely accentuate your body shape.

Pick a Design That Sits Well on your body

When you’re dressing for a busy Christmas party, the last thing you want to do is pick a dress that doesn’t compliment your body shape. If you’re hips are a defining feature, for instance, you won’t want something that sits too high above the knee.

Similarly, if you’re worried about drawing too much attention to your bust or waistline, you’ll want to pick something that drapes nicely, rather than something that binds to your skin, or something that floats about in a way that suggests a fuller figure than you might have.

As with all things, you should be aiming to keep your dress conservative, but arresting. Try to tread the fine line between too daring and too austere, and make sure that the piece you choose suits your body type.

Pick Something That’ll Match Your Accessories

Looking at websites like Treat Republic, It seems like chunky& bold statement necklaces are still very much the norm this season, and there seems to be no shortage of big bracelets about. If you intend to accessorize with statement pieces, make sure you’re choosing a dress that’s nice and simple, so that your accessories really have room to shine.

If you take a look at most celebrities, you’ll notice that they very, very rarely pair loud prints with big jewels, and there’s a very good reason for that.