Help me spend my 40th birthday budget please!

[ARichVernacular]

I'm 40 next month. As part of the celebrations, DH is taking me out for dinner, followed by a night in a posh hotel. This is really the main bit of the birthday for me, as it's what I specifically asked for We have two small children so I told him I want to feel grown up and fabulous for a night.

We are going out with my best pal and my SIL, plus their respective other halves. Both other couples are childfree and very stylish - SIL in a timeless way, bestie in a supercool yet grown up way.

I am 5'4", a 10-12 on top and 12-14 on bottom, fairly nice shape but with a spare type/mum tum. Dark hair, tan/yellow toned skin, blue eyes. Suit strong colours, nothing fluttery.

I have about £200 to spend and I want to look stylish but not too overdone. The trouble is, I have no idea what to buy! Have fallen in love with this DVF dress but that's my whole budget and I still need shoes, bag, coat...also I have no idea whether it would suit. It's the kind of thing my (tall, athletic) best mate would slay in. I am not tall or athletic.

So please, help me, advise me. Tell me what you'd wear to a grown up dinner and cocktails. Anything!

Bumping for you.

You could try eBay for a dvf dress or similar.

The dress is fabulous and I think would look really good on just about anyone. Could you pair it with accessories you already have? Nice to have one special designer item I think.

There is a 20% discount for the outnet I think that is still valid. I read about it on Poppy's style blog. I am on my phone so can't link to it for you.

Sorry just checked and I think the code has expired. Put the name of the address into shopstyle. You may get it cheaper elsewhere

Thanks everyone :)

I've ordered the dress, eek! Looked again and they've sold out of 12s, so I thought I'd betterl try the 14 (I am kind of inbetween) and see if I like it/it likes me - can always return if not.

One good thing is that it won't need much accessorising, because of the detail, and I can always find less expensive shoes/clutch.

Have also been looking around - very taken with this stunner from Reiss but it's even more expensive than the DvF.

I didn't really want a black dress but everything I like most seems to be black