Sunday lunch with people who will comment
Family lunch has its own dress code, and most of it is about not looking like you tried too hard or not at all.
Built on: Something you can eat a large meal in.
Family occasions are the only ones where you are dressing for an audience that has known you for decades and will say what they think. That is a different problem from impressing strangers, and accessories solve it better than clothes do, because they signal effort without signalling change.
The thing that lands well is anything with a connection. A brooch that belonged to someone, a necklace given as a gift by the person you are seeing, a ring with family history — these are noticed and appreciated in a way that a new purchase is not. If you own inherited jewellery and never wear it, this is the occasion it exists for.
The practical constraint is the meal. You are eating for two hours, probably helping in a kitchen, possibly holding somebody's child. Long necklaces swing into food. Bracelets drag through plates and are a nuisance washing up. Rings come off for cooking and get left on windowsills, which is how rings are lost.
The trap in the other direction is underdressing on the grounds that it is only family, which reads as not having bothered — a particular sting at a table of people who did. One considered thing is the whole requirement. Earrings and a good bag, and you are done.
Pockets, or a bag you can put down and leave, since you will not be holding anything for long. A structured bag that stands up on a hall floor is genuinely more useful here than a soft one that slumps and gets stepped on.
