Wedding guest outfit for my early 70s mother?

[SuperConfused]

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?

anothe phase 8 - in the sale, leaves her £200 to buy a fabulous hat!

Actually, they've got a lot of high necked, long sleeved dresses, might be worth trying in there before you look elsewhere.

Flo I know what you mean I think JV have improved recently.
How about showing your mum online pics first to narrow the search? I typed in mother of bride outfits into google and then clicked images and got loads of ideas

Would this work? here

Jaeger green dress with 3/4 sleeves
Also Alexon tend to do well cut linen dresses if she likes linen.

storynanny Surely the point of the OP is that her mother very much does not want to look "mother-of-the-bride".

She wants to (continue to) look cool and Euro-chic and just this side of cutting-edge-fierce.

Just as I will when I'm 70 odd.

But the outfits I saw would be ok for any mature lady to wear to weddings, that is what I meant. It just gives a few ideas, as would typing in "wedding outfits for chic 70year olds" . Just trying to help, not pigeon hole anyone honestly.

But if you type in "mature lady" or "70 years old" the majority respone will be

wrap yourself in a curtain and then hide behind a pillar.

(I defy you to disagree...)

I want to dress as myself. As an individual - choosing from the full range of wonderful clothes that we can now access from all across the world at the click of a button. Not as decided by the agists committee for a "woman of a particular age."

And I am prepared to argue this all day and well into the night. Away with your safe middle-of-the-road tat.

And....

Ok, how about just typing in "wedding outfits" , that would cover all possibilities!

When I said mature ladies, I was thinking that I wouldn't be wanting to wear the lovely strappy, bum skimming outfits that younger girls wear to some weddings I have been to.
I am never going to wear middle aged tat, my JV outfit is def not that! Not sure precis could be called that and some of the desins are very similar as it is the same company.

By the way I love that jaeger green lace dress too

Of course we are all different and, if the kind of look that is deemed appropriate for an older woman happens to suit you, then that's fine. But it is a very, very limited choice and it doesn't sound as if the op's mum likes that choice - otherwise she wouldn't be having so much trouble finding an outfit.

So I'm with Zero (although I can't stick around and argue, I'm afraid)

how about just typing in "wedding outfits

Because I want my idea of a wedding outfit not the majority view.....

How about typing "dresses" into a fabulous site and choosing something that flatters?

My final word then I have to go: it doesn't matter how old we are, we all want clothes that show off our best features and disguise our worst ones. I will concede that, the older I get, the more features I want to disguise However body shape always trumps age. Every time.

May be this
www.noanoa.com/en/product?skuid=1-3759-100265002
They are always beautifully made and lovely fabric.

Only saying " wedding outfit" because of the thread title....

Superconfused, I was only trying to help!

type in "long sleeved, high necked occasion dresses" as that's what hte lady in question is after?

(and look in Phase 8 as they have several long sleeved, high necked dresses that would flatter the size 12/14 figure without looking matronly, while being under budget, even if it's just to rule out styles she doesn't like)

Ok, this isn't exactly in the list but

it's so pretty!

I thought it worth adding. Particularly since you said you didn't know where else to look.

(For future reference your DM could look at Maria Grachvogel next A/W - there were the most delicious dresses last winter but all gone now.)

I hope this thread has given you some new ideas for possible places to shop....

Wow, thanks! This is quite the list. Floisme, to be honest, I think my mum would be inclined to agree about Jacques Vertes on principal but some of the specific outfits linked were quite elegant and fit the bill and sometimes handing things into her in a fitting room and not letting her look at the labels works wonders!

Have shown her some of these links: the Jaegar dogtooth shift dress is a definite contender, and the pale blue phase eight (actually quite a lot of the phase eight), and the light blue hobbs. She loves Diane Von F, but I think she needs something a bit more fitted than that dress linked.

She also, since I didn't tell her I was posting about her on the internet, thinks I'm a very dutiful daughter for finding all this stuff

We're going to go do some trying on for her tomorrow: however, I arrived down tonight and we went straight to late-night shopping for me, and while I was trying on something in Monsoon she tried on a dress to keep me company, which completely goes against everything she said she wanted but actually looks so well she may go for it anyway. Its this one here:
uk.monsoon.co.uk/view/product/uk_catalog/mon_4,mon_4.3/5530101108

She is adamant she'd need some kind of light cardigan/jacket she'd be comfortable to not take off at any stage, because she still will not have anyone looking at her arms, and she still wants to look at some of the alternatives on offer here but I still think we may have a very unlikely winner.

Thanks so much for all the help, it really has made this feel a lot more achievable and like we can have a fun mother-daughter bonding time and not an endurance test.

Lovely monsoon dress, and the coast dresses this season are lovely too. Hope your shopping day went well.