Earlier this week, Hilary Alexander wrote a piece entitled, "What? You're going out in that!" which takes a serious look at the what people should not wear to the company office party. Since many of us will soon be facing the miserable but compulsory event known as the holiday party, I thought I'd mention some of her helpful ground rules.

Don't do the following:

• Wear a new pair of high heels –blisters are not a good look, nor are bare feet on filthy pavements
• Show too much cleavage – leave that to the celebrities with a line of bras and knickers to push – and don't expose too much flesh either. Less is more when it comes to what you show your colleagues
• Wear anything see-through – everybody has camera-phones these days
• Try to out-dress the boss's wife; he might appreciate it, she won't
• Wear festive red – you don't want to compete with the decorations
• Squeeze into something that doesn't fit. Remember, you can't hold your tummy in all night
• Dress up like the Christmas fairy – leave that to the tree. So no tinsel, no Christmas tree earrings, no Santa hats or reindeer-horn headbands

These seem reasonable enough, don't they? The only thing that I would add to the list is "Don't drink too much!" No matter how smashing you looked, what everyone will remember is the table dancing and the shameless flirting with the guy from accounts receivable.