I am going wedding outfit shopping with my mum this weekend, and am -dreading it a bit hoping someone might be able to point us in the right direction.
She is very, very fussy, and in the past she has spent months looking for an outfit before panic-buying something at the last minute. She's early 70s, has short white hair, would ideally like to look as french and stylish as possible and is about 5"4 and a 12-14 on top, 14 on bottom.
She generally looks great in separates and suits but has decided this time she wants a dress. Which would be fine, except she has quite strict rules she won't deviate from - things have to have quite high necks, (she objects to anything with even a scoop neck), her upper arms have to be covered and can't just be covered by a jacket as she would never take it off so a dress would need to have ideally three quarter length sleeves, and it would need to be tummy-skimming/flattering.
If something was really wonderful, and matched all that, I'd say her budget would go up to 200/250+
She likes massimo dutti and M&S for casual, but I'm not sure either of us knows where to start for this except house of frasier (there's no John Lewis in her home town and I don't think she will make it to London before the wedding)
Does anyone have any ideas that might meet that criteria?! Or even brands that would be good to look at?
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Wedding guest outfit for my early 70s mother?
SuperConfused · 19/03/2014 21:30
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I am probably closer to your mum in age than I am to a lot of you and, to be perfectly frank, if you suggested Jacques Vert to me, I would tell you to fuck right off and back again.
Of course, if your mum likes the Jacques Vert look then 
but I doubt it somehow, not if she wears Massimo Dutti and wants to look French. That, to me, suggests simple shapes, clean lines and general unfussiness. Her rules don't sound outlandish: lots of women want to disguise upper arms and tummy. A high neckline is more restrictive but maybe she just feels self conscious about crepiness around the chest?
I like Zero's links. A shift style with sleeves and, ideally a bit of knotting/ruching trickery on the tummy might do the trick. Or, if she has boobs and a waist, she might prefer something more A-line. I would look for fabrics with a bit structure or a really good quality jersey.
I can't look for links right now but I would check out Hobbs, Jaegar, Phase 8, LK Bennett, M&S Autograph (please don't take her to the Classic Collection!) Damsel in a Dress and Kaliko. If I find time later I'll try and come back with some links.
Getting a good fit is really important and she may need to try on a lot of things but you can always get something altered. Good luck 
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Agree Flo, Love the pale blue Etoile with its coat - very Queen Mum
The dark green is a bit workaday; would need £20k of gobstopper pearls, a dead fox and immaculate grooming to carry it off.
I don't know what's going on with Jaeger these days. There's nothing actually wrong with the things you link - just a feeling behind my eyes that I've seen it all too often - sort of visual cliche?
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