Dress up and feel good today - and raise money for vital charity

Everyone else can settle for ball gowns, sequin numbers, tuxedos or, really, whatever takes their fancy when on Friday, they are invited to don their best outfits – and also remember those no longer with us.

It will be the fourth Party Dress Day, an event first organised during lockdown in early 2021 by Alex to raise funds for the trust, which supports people who are bereaved.

Participants are urged to dress in clothes that make them feel good and post about it online for the event which has raised thousands of pounds during the previous three celebrations. It now takes place annually on the last Friday of January.

Alex is hoping for a cumulative total of £8,000 with this year’s contributions.

Initially, the idea came from seeing a friend posting pictures of her toddler in dresses during lockdown, saying she otherwise would not get the chance to wear them to parties as intended.

Alex decided to put on her own dress meant for Christmas, which for many people in 2020 was effectively cancelled. She shared pictures online and received comments from people who said how much they missed getting dressed up.

It got her thinking and the first Party Dress Day took place just a week later.

She chose to raise money for the trust, having written about their work previously in her job as a journalist.

Alex, aged 41, said: “A friend lost her dad to Covid just after Christmas 2020, unexpectedly.

“She came to see us and had to stand on the doorstep. She was crying and we couldn’t even give her a hug. We probably would have broken the rules to give her a hug, but she insisted she didn’t want to risk anyone getting ill and that stuck with me.”

At the beginning, it was just Alex and her friends participating, but gradually more people started to join in, thanks to exposure on the likes of Desert Island Disco, Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6 show.

Alex said: “There is science, dopamine dressing, that shows where putting on certain outfits make you feel better, because you feel attractive, or you associate certain clothing with having fun or coming together for, say, a wedding or a party.

“I always think don’t save things for best. We always wait for that special day, but it might not come. That’s what we've learned through Covid, is life can be short, and so why not put that bright yellow dress on you love on a random Friday? You’ll feel special, you’ll feel happier, you’ll cheer people up.”

There have been some inventive ideas too.

“A friend of mine had a Vivienne Westwood dress she bought for her birthday years earlier. She put it on and did this amazing picture putting out the wheelie bins. Another friend is a swimming teacher, she and her colleagues wore their dresses over their wetsuits while teaching.”

Alex, who lives with husband Tom and sons Ralph, six, and three-year-old Max said: “On the second Party Dress Day I wore my wedding dress in the evening because I’d said if we raised another £1,000 I would put it on for the first time in 10 years and we did.”

The Good Grief Trust, run by people who have been bereaved, encourages people to talk about the subject more honestly.

Alex said: “I know people that have had a bereavement and other people don’t even acknowledge it, or stop talking to them, don’t ask them how they are, because people are almost afraid of doing the wrong thing.

“I think the message Linda (Magistris, founder) tries to get across is just say their name, acknowledge that person that had died, because that’ll mean a lot to somebody.”

See justgiving.com/fundraising/partydressday