This season, Mardi Gras festivities may find you at a parade, festival, ball or all three. With multiple outfits to plan, you can keep your style in check with this helpful guide.
Ladies and men:
The main thing to keep in mind with Mardi Gras is color. It’s important to remember your primary colors: purple, green and gold. While wearing all three colors can start to look a little over-the-top, or even worse, tacky, try to mellow the brightness out by choosing one or two colors, and mellowing them out with basic colors like black, white and denim shades.
Ladies:
This Mardi Gras, the weather will more than likely be cold, so a warm top, such as a fuzzy purple sweater, is one of the most fashionable ways to stay warm while you’re outside at a parade. Depending on the weather and how cold it is, you can pair your top with jeans or leggings. The best shoes to wear with the outfit would either be a pair of Mardi Gras colored sneakers or a pair of boots.
Dresses and shirt dresses are another option and a way to repurpose those LSU gameday dresses. Again, depending on the weather, tights with the dress or shirt dress might be a good thing to have on. If your dress isn’t a bright shade of purple or gold, get festive by throwing on a Mardi Gras-colored vest or hat. For shoes, keep it simple with sneakers, flats or boots. If you want to maximize the amount of time you can be catching throws, no heels.
If it rains, which is to be expected, you can throw on a rain jacket. If you have either a yellow or green rain jacket, then that would be a great way to keep the Mardi Gras-themed look with your outfit.
Finally, ball gowns. Whether it’s a ball in New Orleans or Baton Rouge, guests are always dressed to the nines in jaw-dropping, floor-length ensembles. Many events have themed colors, such as Spanish Town Mardi Gras Ball’s pink flamingo theme, so no matter the dress’ color, your shoes can always feature a festive Mardi Gras color.
Men:
Shirts that are specific to Mardi Gras are pretty easy to come by, especially in Baton Rouge. So a classic but also fashionable choice might be a long sleeve polo shirt with Mardi Gras-colored stripes. Black jeans or just blue jeans would go great with the outfit, and can be finished off with flashy sneakers.
Another look which can be a more modern choice is a long line t-shirt of any Mardi Gras color. Again, the best bottoms to wear with the outfit would be black or blue jeans. Since this is a more modern take on Mardi Gras, slim or skinny jeans are the best kind of jeans to have. Of course, having sneakers that match your shirt is always a plus.
Should it “rain on your parade” (literally), a green rain jacket is a great thing to have to keep you both dry and in style.
For formalwear to be worn at balls, a tuxedo or just a blazer with pants and a tie are essentials for your closet. Keep in mind that many of the balls have a specific color or theme, so you might have to go out and buy a specific tie or shirt for a specific ball.
If you weren’t in the Mardi Gras spirit already, listen to our Mardi Gras Spotify playlist here!
