Claire’s Pick of the Best Burgundy Sequin Dresses

I spent about three years telling anyone who’d listen that burgundy sequins were a trap, gorgeous on the hanger, a genuine crime scene by the end of the night, sequins working their way into the carpet, the car seat, somebody’s mouth if you hugged wrong. I had opinions. I had a whole speech.

Then a woman came into the shop wearing a burgundy sequin dress she’d bought secondhand in 2016, told me she’d worn it eleven times since, machine washed it twice on a delicate cycle out of pure laziness, and it still had every last sequin. Eleven times. I counted on my fingers while she said it because I genuinely didn’t believe her the first time through.

That’s a concrete, sequin by sequin counterexample to everything I’d been saying for three years, and I don’t love losing an argument to someone who wasn’t even trying to have one with me, but there it is. Most of the shop floor has come around since. I have one coworker who still insists the good ones only exist in a size range that conveniently matches her own, which, sure, maybe, I haven’t fully forgiven her for that theory yet.

Here’s what’s true regardless of who wins. Sitting down in sequins is its own event. There’s a version cut with a bit of stretch in the lining that lets you actually bend at the waist without the fabric fighting you, and there’s the stiffer, fully rigid kind that turns every dinner into a very upright, very careful evening where you eat slightly less than you’d like because leaning forward feels risky. I’ve worn both. The stiffer one photographed better.

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The stretch one let me eat the second half of my pasta. You decide what matters more to you at 9pm three glasses in.

Shoes wise, the flashiest thing I own gets worn with the plainest black heel I have, because two loud things fighting for attention is exhausting to look at all night. A denim jacket over it at the start of the evening, tossed in the coat check by hour two, worked better than the little cardigan I originally packed, which just looked like I was cold and unsure about the whole outfit.

The gamble pick, and I’ll say it straight, is the one with the fully open back. Spectacular on the right person, and on the wrong occasion it reads more costume party than dinner reservation. I’ve seen it go both ways in the same weekend. Buy it knowing that, not hoping it’ll surprise you.