Dress me: Retirement party chic

As much as I love fashion, I am very indecisive at times about what to wear to certain events. In those situations, I turn to my friends and then Twitter and/or this blog for your feedback as well.

Brace yourself, it’s that time again.

This weekend, I will be attending a retirement party, so I thought a new, fancy dress he/she hasn’t seen me in would be appropriate. But my usual places (Nordstrom, Banana) were coming up a bit dry and I didn’t have a ton of funds to donate toward this, so I decided to look for something simple that I could complete by shopping my closet.

And to my sincere shock, Express, provided me with two options that are affordable, comfortable, pretty flattering and, well, age appropriate (aka not what you would necessarily find on a tall, thin model). Tickle me surprised! I also shopped my closet a bit too.

Anyhow, I need your help to decide what to wear!