We’ve all been to a cocktail party and most of us can’t seem to get enough of them! There seems to be something so exciting about the concept that mere word of a cocktail party can makes us giddy.

But what is it about a cocktail party that separates itself worlds apart from just a mere ‘party’? There is just something so elegant, glamorous and sophisticated that conjures up the same image in everybody’s mind. Beautiful women in long expensive dresses talking eloquently with their trim statuesque male counterparts, everyone looking fabulous and successful.

So why do we have this image anyway? It’s definitely based in the origins of the cocktail party. Traditionally they were the preserve of the social elite and only the who’s who of society would get an invitation so you’d better be sure to dress to impress for this occasion! It’s widely claimed that the first cocktail party took place in 1917 in St. Louis hosted by a socialite of fine taste, Mrs. Julius S. Walsh. The party took place in the bar of her private mansion, starting at 12 noon and lasting for 1 hour. Brief, but it was enough to send shockwaves throughout the social world establishing cocktail parties as an upper class institution.

Cast forward to today and cocktail parties are enjoying a resurgence in popularity and not amongst the elite. We realised that everyone loves cocktails (delicious!) and everyone loves parties (fun!) so why do high society get to keep it all to themselves? Today anyone and everyone can host their own cocktail party, and they do! People from all walks of life can get dressed up and call round to a friends for an evening of cocktails with a party ranging from a couple of besties to a pumping wild all-nighter! We don’t need a private bar or a mansion…though they would be very very nice!

So that’s why cocktail parties are so special to us. They allow us an opportunity to feel elegant and sophisticated (moreso than we do already!) like we are the trendsetting social elite of 1917. So today with seemingly nothing but woes and crises all around the world, people are turning to hosting their own parties as a means of forgetting their troubles, enjoying the loving friends they have and reminding themselves that they are exactly as fabulous as they want to be. Because let’s face it, who doesn’t feel like a million pounds at a cocktail party?! We know we’ve never had a bad one!