With any event on the social calendar, chances are you’re always going to find yourself stressing about what to wear for the occasion. After all, most events require you to adhere to specific dress codes, so choosing the right outfit is no easy endeavor. That’s even more true when it comes to the cultural festival, Lunar New Year. If you’re celebrating this year, you know that the upcoming festivities are quickly approaching on February 10. Making the prospect of choosing the right outfit all the more imperative.
In the vein of helping remove some of that stress, I decided to pick the brains of InStyle China contributing editor and influencer Leaf Greener on the rules for dressing for the event. I wanted to know how much you needed to stick to traditional ways of dressing but also how to avoid offending anyone. She gave me three tips anyone can easily follow, but she also pointed out the one thing you shouldn’t do when picking out your look.
While traditions are still present, the event has definitely become more modern, so it’s surprisingly simple to find an outfit. Keep scrolling for four dressing rules to follow for the Lunar New Year.
The traditional way to dress for Chinese New Year is to wear a qipao or a cheongsam frock. Leaf advised that traditionally you would wear this in red. Right now, many designers have been influenced by this style. From Rixo to The Attico to Prada, you can easily find a piece (in a wide range of colors!) that takes its inspiration from these dresses.
All black and all white are traditionally not worn during Chinese New Year because they symbolize bad luck and are associated with mourning. Instead, for an auspicious start to the year, choose red, orange, yellow, or green, which all have positive associations.
This post originally appeared on Who What Wear UK. This post was published at an earlier date and has been updated.