A satin fishtail skirt (that is, a long silk skirt that is bias cut — form hugging, but softly, until about knee-length, and then kind of flowy from there until the floor) might be the most versatile black tie garment you can get. There are so many ways you can wear it. And I don’t know if you have something coming up, or going on (this was originally meant to run in the fall, but before NYE seems like high time in its own right), I highly recommend you defer to a skirt that looks and acts like this:

Or maybe the dress equivalent works too?

Here are some ways to consider wearing one like it.

With a short dress or skirt over:

This, conceptually, is what I’m most excited about — a mini dress over something longer than it. You can play around so much with how you style it. Here I’m wearing a sequined jacket over the dress and skirt, and a pair flat suede boots.

But there are plenty of other ways to imagine it too. A solo dress over,

or a crochet mini skirt-as-peplum.

With a single breast, long line coat:

A shirt jacket would be cool too, as part of a more feminine interpretation of the tux.

So would a solo button-down, preferably in silk or in a material akin to silk.

Another way to consider the skirt, especially if maximum coziness is on your mind:

With a sweater — I like it with one that can define your waist and leave room for some styling around it, as seen through the white t-shirt which breaks up what the sweater and skirt do together when they interact, and the double rosettes.

I’d also think about wearing it with a shirt from your everyday life:

Usually, you have a pretty good sense of how you feel in the wears you put on most often, and I think with the comfort of that familiarity comes an opportunity to tap into a deeper connection to your creativity and risk tolerance, which is where the two belts layered over each other come into play. Added the green bag for a small pop of color and there is a black velvet bow in my hair too.

You can also always nail this with a t-shirt, but my recommendation if you’re going this route is to make sure the tee is a finer cotton but still rigid enough that it doesn’t wrinkle but does still feel like a shirt that does not need more layers (think something like this, from Flore Flore).

One more option with more color and texture because I haven’t used much:

In case you find yourself in a warmer climate!

Some great skirts to consider include: