I never wear dresses but want one for a do and nothing seems to suit my shape - help!

[SvetlanaKirilenko]

Celebrating MIL's birthday with a bit of a do in a few weeks and want to get a nice dress to wear. It's an evening meal in a hotel (not too posh) and I know a few other people will be wearing nice dresses, and I would like to as well as I have been looking rubbish for ages and would like to look decent for a change. Something reasonably casual so I could wear it again.

Problem is I never wear dresses, or even skirts. I have tried lots of styles on and loads seem to not suit my body shape at all, so not sure what I am doing wrong

I am 5'6" size 8-10, shortish legs, good waist, medium boobs, wide shoulders. Oh and I need to keep my upper arms covered (so sleeveless is out) due to scarring.

Wrap styles really do not suit me at all, and anything without a defined waist makes me look loads bigger than I am. I am flummoxed - I think the problem could be the pesky shoulders.

Any ideas what styles might suit? Budget anything up to £100.

Thank you - if you have read all this and manage to find anything half decent I salute you

And what do you think of this? I quite like it, but will it suit me?

Oh my god you sound properly stunning. 5 ft 6 and a size 8/10?? You can wear whatever you like!

I think a wrap dress would be gorgeous on you. Let me find a link

Question: what is your colouring? And budget?

You said you don't do wrap. Hmmm. You have a little waist and nice boobs. How come they don't look right?

lovely comes in two colours, quite chic

and this much more casual, would be gorgeous with wedges

What sort of colours do you wear?

Have you looked at Great Plains?

Thanks tak1ngchances

OK, firstly am not stunning, have lost a lot of weight though so would like to show off new figure a bit. Colouring is dark brown hair, pale skin, brown eyes - blues and pinks/reds suit me, as do dark colours, but white/pale/pastels do not. Budget anything up to £100.

I don't know why wrap dresses don't look right - could it be my shoulders? They're wider than my hips and for some reason I end up looking really chunky in them. Or maybe I've only tried really bad ones on?

And I love the Mango dress you've linked to. But am I too old for it (am early 40s)?

Xposted with LaTrucha - colours just mentioned in last post, have never heard of GP but will look them up thank you!

They have a few quite nice things with sleeves that you could use again.

No to that dress you posted OP. I don't know if it's the way they've styled it (ankle socks & men's shoes???) but it looks like a sack, I can't imagine who it would look good on. Maybe styled differently I don't know.

I also think wrap dresses should suit you, you certainly sound like you have the figure for them.

(Just been browsing for ideas, there are a lot of hideous dresses about aren't there )

poosible Cobalt Blue

Black / patterned

drapey

Any good?

I am happy/willing to try on wrap dresses, but they seem to always gape open (prob due to wide shoulders then not enough boob below to fill dress), and I think once I tie them round my waist there's just too much material flapping about making me look bulkier!

Hmm maybe I should give them another go then, I do like the look of them.

You see MrsHelsBels74 that's why I have tried on lots of unsuitable dresses - there is obviously a mismatch between what might suit me and what I like . And yy to hideous dresses everywhere.

LaTrucha I love the NW3 one you have linked to - I used to wear dresses like that as an indie girl in the 90s! I could even wear that in winter with my tights and clompy boots!

They don't have a 10, I am an 8 in some shops, how is the sizing at NW3?

Others too smart for me I think, I don't do smart very well.

red

Great Plains A bit like the one you posted. Maybe too casual

I'm sure you can find another stockist for NW3. They're probably on the Hobbs own website.

Have a look at phase eight. They have a sale at the moment and tonnes of dresses, you can search by size and sleeve length. They have lots of quite fitted dresses which would look great as you are slim.

NW3 dress seems to be a bit of a sell out. Well worth trying the 10!

this dress will off set your shoulders being wider than your hips, it will not gape either

I have ordered the NW3 dress in the 8 (will breathe in when trying on) and the Mango dress and the one I linked to as I do like it

I am very excited that I might finally find a dress that suits me, and I like!

Thank you so much to all of you

Svetlana you are an inverted triangle. Here is a site full of suggestions for you for future reference.

Wrap dresses are not the best style for all shapes. I'm a lean column and wrap dresses tend to accentuate the wrong bits in me. I look much better in other styles.

Go for a knee-length, fitted, bright shift dress. Low neck . Wrap dress will also work well. But with wrap dresses, you must wear heals!

hope the dresses you ordered work well

just wanted to offer solidarity on the wrap dresses - they really don't suit me at all, despite everyone saying they should. I'm 5'6, size 10-12, also with wide shoulders so think you might be right about shoulders being the problem.

I am hourglassy and wrap dresses don't do much for me either!

Those twist waist jersey dresses are really horrible! Like the nw3 one. Your own choice the people tree one was a lot nicer than the mother of the bride ones.