The ELLE Canada team is committed to wearing sequins every day until December 20. Join us for your chance to win a $1,000 Panasonic camera! Tweet us your sequin pics with #sequinchallenge.

Today is all about texture and, as we enter the final week of the sequin challenge, there are only two editors left in competition: Kathryn Hudson and myself.

I dressed-up my Monday sequins with velvet, pairing my golden Michel Kors tank with a sweater from Winter Kate and emerald pants from Joe Fresh. Kat also mixed textures and finished by rocking a black satin Alexander Wang blazer with a matte black sequin tee (an amazing H&M find!).

Which texture match-up do you prefer?

The ELLE Canada team is committed to wearing sequins every day until December 20. Join us for your chance to win a $1,000 Panasonic camera! Tweet us your sequin pics with #sequinchallenge.

Sequins are rarely subtle. Rocking a mushroom grey top adorned with neon green sequin clusters is decidedly not subtle. But halfway into the sequin challenge, my embellished tee barely raised an eyebrow at the office.  Even our editor-in-chief Noreen Flanagan (whose sartorial style is typically minimalist and monochromatic) hailed my top as a great “entrance-point for someone who isn’t big into sequins.” I believe she even used the word “subtle”. It’s official: the ELLE team has become desensitized.

What do you think? Is this print demure and understated or is it better described as something resembling a character in a Dr. Seuss book?

The ELLE Canada team is committed to wearing sequins every day until December 20. Join us for your chance to win a $1,000 Panasonic camera! Tweet us your sequin pics with #sequinchallenge.

Sequins are less about a sparkling addition to an item of clothing and more about a state of mind. To wear a disco ball-inspired shift, a shining blazer of a sweater covered in mother-of-pearl sequins (my outfit today, which is oddly reminiscent of Rainbow Fish), it takes a certain personality and swagger.

But some days you don’t feel like being the person who wears an exclamation point in public. Some days the siren call of flannel, jeans and a decidedly unadorned wardrobe is too hard to resist. These days prove to be extremely difficult when you’re competing in a sequin challenge.

Yesterday, I was not in a sequin-state-of-mind and my outfit consisted of rust-coloured jeans and a simple silk top (which had the faintest of sequin details on the collar).

Have you had a sparkle overload and had to resort to a sequin-light look?

The ELLE Canada team is committed to wearing sequins every day until December 20. Join us for your chance to win a $1,000 Panasonic camera! Tweet us your sequin pics with #sequinchallenge.

One of the difficulties with a sequin challenge is that, as time marches on, and your sequin supply begins to dwindle, you’re forced to wear certain items that were unearthed from the depths of your closet—items you may have forgotten, or wish you could forget. We are not immune to this at the ELLE office. Case in point, the sequined “headband” that an editor tried to pass off as a skirt yesterday or the black sequin tank dress that I wore which was in fact the bridesmaid uniform for a bachelorette I attended this past summer. (I had removed the suggestive insignia and lewd pins, naturally.)

I’m a firm believer in giving second-life to dresses, and even the most dazzling of sequin shifts can be made office appropriate by pairing them with the right accessories (in this case I opted for a black, embroidered blazer, opaque tights and booties).

How have you transformed your sequin outfits?

The ELLE Canada team is committed to wearing sequins every day until December 20. Join us for your chance to win a $1,000 Panasonic camera! Tweet us your sequin pics with #sequinchallenge.

Last Thursday the ELLE Canada team erupted in a chorus of “Oohs” and “Ahhs” as Noah Lehava and I both rocked fully sequined dresses to the office. Noah’s sparkling raspberry-coloured dress did ignite my sense of competition (and threaten my reign atop the sequin pile), but when someone has the sartorial-guts to wear a tea-length dress that frankly, is reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe’s opening number in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” you have to wrap your arms around them in a congratulatory hug. Well played.

The ELLE Canada team is committed to wearing sequins every day until December 20. Join us for your chance to win a $1,000 Panasonic camera! Tweet us your sequin pics with #sequinchallenge.

We’re all still going strong at the office, but the first week is the easiest. The real challenge happens as time passes and you have to navigate the thin line between what is really a sequin and what is merely a sparkly embellishment. In some cases, the decision is clear. (A bead is not a sequin.) Other times, it’s open for debate. For example, is a paillette a sequin? Thoughts?

The ELLE Canada team is committed to wearing sequins every day until December 20. Join us for your chance to win a $1,000 Panasonic camera! Tweet us your sequin pics with #sequinchallenge.

Coincidentally my subtle sequin outfit perfectly matched the gorgeous display of roses sitting in the middle of our office. Half way through the first week of our sequin challenge, how is your sequin supply holding up?

The ELLE Canada team is committed to wearing sequins every day until December 20. Join us for your chance to win a $1,000 Panasonic camera! Tweet us your sequin pics with #sequinchallenge.

Yesterday, to welcome our new art director, Brittany Eccles, to the team, 12 shining editors went to lunch wearing our sequined best. Midway through the sushi feast, “Lady Marmalade” started playing on the restaurant’s stereo. This could not have been a coincidence. Rather, we believe it to be a law of physics: with so many sequins in the room, the drag-queens-gone-wild music simply had to manifest. I highly suspect that by the end of the sequin challenge, Liza Minnelli will spontaneously appear beside my desk.

Today, some editors have already dropped out, while a few cling to the challenge with weak attempts (see Vanessa Craft’s sparsely sequined scarf). Most of us, however, are just ramping up.

How are you doing?!

The grand prize for all your holiday party pics! The Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G5X Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera.

Last year, two of our editors—Kat Hudson and Ally Dean—tried to out-shine one another by wearing a different sequined item every day for the month of December. (The creative lengths they went to resulted in a Vegas-esque beach cover-up being worn under a fur vest. Shame.)

This year, we’re broadening the sequin-scope and are inviting you, our readers, to face your closet and shine for the entire month of December.

Here’s how it works: Tweet us your sequin ensemble pics to @ELLECanada using the hashtag #sequinchallenge.

You’ll be entered to win an amazing Panasonic camera worth $1,000. The details: Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G5X Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with camera case and 16 GB SD card with key features including: 16.05 megapixel Live MOS sensor, 3-inch LCD touchscreen, and a LUMIX G X VARIO PZ wide angle zoom lens.

Now, the rules of the Sequin Challenge. (These may or may not be loosely based on the rules of Fight Club.)

1. You must talk about the sequin challenge.
2. You MUST talk about the sequin challenge.
3. If during the month of December, someone buys new sequins or borrows a sequined item, the fight is over and they are out of the sequin challenge.
4. Only one sequin per  outfit is required.
5. One item can only be worn once. No repeat outfits.
6. No beads, no jewels. These are not sequins.
7. The challenge will go until December 20, 2012.
8. If this is your first sequin challenge, you need to go for it!

Good luck!

One thing everyone at work knows about me is that I’m a travel junkie, in fact I carry my passport with me at all times because, well,  you never know when a last-minute opportunity may pop up.

My jet-set fixation is responsible for many things (including a membership on Mr. & Mrs. Smith Hotels, a nearly maxed-out credit card after booking a holiday vacation and an intimate familiarity with many airports in Europe)  but most recently it has caused a insomnia-inducing obsession with the new Grand Tourista Bag by Jason Wu for St. Regis Hotels & Resorts. This luxe bag marks Wu’s first foray into the world of product created exclusively for travel and his first accessory designed for the St. Regis brand. And frankly, I believe it to be the only thing that can see you through airport security with your dignity intact.

Grand Tourista Bag by Jason Wu for St. Regis Hotels & Resorts ($1,995),  available at www.stregis.com/boutique and www.jasonwustudio.com.

*Disclaimer: This bag is not available until mid December, 2012. This makes it ideally suited to holiday wish lists. consider it at the top of mine.