Why is the go to mother of bride outfit a hideous stiff coat dress with hat?

[Coranne]

No offence intended. But why do so many mother of the brides wear these horrible long coats with stiff dresses and a huge hat.

I took my mum to a wedding stylist (not cheap) and all she did was pull out outfits like the first image. I told the stylist I wanted my mum in something like the second outfit plus pashmina.

I’m British but my family is European by origin. Is it just tradition? The go to? It’s not even the most flattering. My mum is slim so I don’t get the knee jerk reaction to go for such a dated look

So confused!

Neither image is of my mum

This does seem to have been the standard for 30+ years now. Neither DH's mum nor mine wore anything like that at our wedding!

Where’s “everywhere”? I was in London last week and didn’t see a single pair.

Well, I live in London and I'm seeing them at all the events we've been to recently, both work and social, they're prominently displayed in shops and all over Net A Porter, My Theresa and so forth.

I agree.

OP is right about different tastes.

Context of the wedding is everything: such as venue, location and level of formality. The Queen was a style icon, esp for a woman of her age, despite wearing this ‘stuffy’ old style which Catherine etc also looks very elegant in despite being decades younger. The cut and fit is just different for her but it’s the same style essentially. The likes of Carole Middleton’s MotB outfits with the dress jacket and hat had rave reviews from stylists etc commentating at the royal wedding. Had she worn a floaty dress at Westminster or St Paul’s etc, it would not have gone down well and I’m not sure it would have at different kinds of weddings with the exception of a beach/hot destination one tbh. I recall Sam Cameron getting criticised for not wearing a hat to that wedding, for instance.

I just wanted my mum to feel comfortable and confident.

Of course European are more stylish... because they are all small minded middle class people form small towns.

Whaaat? How did this go from dresses, jackets and hats people do or don’t like, to overt racism?

How about a nice cup of tea instead?

If I saw a MOTB in a dress like the one the OP likes, I’d be wondering why she’d borrowed her daughter’s frock.

We have a local boutique which has dresses around the 100 EUR mark, assorted colours and styles.
Plus a mother of the spouse selection of quite strange dresses with frills and floating bits around 750 EUR. They are Spanish and Italian.

Heels haven’t ever gone away. They just only come out for a more formal event. Women are not wearing Louboutins every day. It’s a case of whether you are comfortable in them for a wedding. And how high?

This.

Maybe you chose the wrong stylist then. It seems a bit silly to base your comments on the experience of one stylist.

@Thestarsintheskycan you show a photo or link to your trouser suit . I think that’s the sort of thing I fancy for my mob outfit later this year

Personally, I’d wouldn’t take inspiration from Julie Andrews curtain outfits, but if you want to put your mum in a frilly flouncy dress with high heels, crack on. Just make sure you ask her what she thinks.

I went with a friend shopping for her
step-daughters wedding (the brides birth mother passed away afew years back) and her step-daughter lives away so we went for an intitial look.
I think there’s alot of traditional MOTB stuff about still which my friend viewed as a bit dated but there must be a market for it as there is tonnes of it available!!

my friend went for a jumpsuit with a hat and a little jacket and it looked really good and she’s worn both items since and she’d hired the hat as she knew she wouldn’t wear that again.

I think the key is get something you like not what you think you’re expected to wear I’d say.

I think that your preferred dresses are ghastly.
The red and pink sack dress has hideous colour combo and the green blotchy thing is something you might run to the shops in.

Why is half of it crossed out?

It’s probably so the mother doesn’t upstage the bride!

It would be rude of me to say lurk moar (IYKYK) so I'll explain that on MN, writing something crossed out is used when you're making a slightly sneery aside - as if the crossed out bit is what you're thinking to yourself but it's too blunt to say out loud.

E.g. if your friend Sandra asked if you like her red or green dress best and you say the red but are also thinking both look terrible you've got no taste Sandra