How to Dress for a Champagne Brunch

A champagne brunch is a specific social form — more celebratory than a weekday coffee, more intimate than a dinner party, charged with the particular ease of midday and the particular effervescence of good sparkling wine. The clothes should carry all of this: relaxed but considered, celebratory but not overdressed, beautiful in natural light.

**The essential formula**: Fluid fabrics + warm colours + one statement piece. This combination works consistently across all body types, all seasons (adjusted for weight of fabric), and all degrees of formality within the brunch spectrum.

**Dresses**: A silk midi slip dress — Réalisation Par (realisationpar.com) in their signature silk-satin, or Reformation (thereformation.com) for a more sustainable option — in champagne, blush, dusty gold, or ivory reads as simultaneously celebratory and effortless. The midi length is universally flattering and avoids the formality of a full-length gown or the informality of a mini.

**Separates**: Wide-leg linen trousers in cream or camel paired with a silk camisole and a fine cashmere cardigan is a combination that has never been wrong at a sophisticated brunch table. For cooler months, the same trousers with a ribbed turtleneck in ivory cashmere (from Naadam, naadam.co) and a statement coat.

**Shoes**: For a seated brunch, the shoe is almost entirely about the walk to the table and the photographs taken there. A beautiful flat sandal — Tkees (tkees.com) makes extraordinary leather sandals in neutrals — or a kitten heel mule (Malone Souliers, malonesouliers.com, produces the most beautiful kitten heels available) both work perfectly.

**Hair and make-up**: The champagne brunch is an occasion for 'fresh-faced luminous' rather than 'full evening'. Illuminating base, a sweep of champagne-gold eyeshadow, and a tinted lip gloss. Hair worn loose with gentle wave, or swept into a low chignon secured with a beautiful clip from Lelet NY (leletny.com).

**The Mimosavated palette**: Golden, warm, luminous — dress in the colours of the drink you are celebrating and you will never be wrong at a champagne brunch.