What type of dresses do your 12-13 year old DD's wear?

[UselessMumAlert]

Looking for inspiration to show DD for a) slightly more formal look and b) summer dress. She burns quite easily, so ideally something with covered shoulders.

OP your username is very sad. You aren’t a useless mum because you don’t know about dresses - lots of girls live in shorts and t shirts over the summer! Is the dress needed for a particular occasion?
Mine are little but I would say get her to try on styles when the summer stuff comes into the shops and see what she likes.

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say. It wasn't intended for this post though, it was for the one not knowing what to get her for her birthday!

She is usually a shorts and t-shirt kind of girl unless it's really hot and we're heading to the beach. All of the dresses I've seen seem be either much too young or too old for her.

New look 915 gen often do lovely dresses for girls this age, if not river island!

My dd mostly wore shorts and tops in summer at that age (and still does). It was also the age I stopped being able to just buy things without her seeing it first and she had to choose her own clothes having been really unbothered when younger. Just take dd to some shops and she can try on and choose a dress.

Try Hollister for floaty floral dresses.

Mine doesn't wear dresses. Shorts and t shirts. Why the need for a dress? How about loose culottes or jumpsuit if something smarter needed?

Yes New Look 9-15 was popular with my dd at that age as well. Also Primark or H&M.

Try abercrombie kids. They also have a lot of dressy 2 piece top and skort combos if she’d rather that over a dress.

Is she in an adult size 4 yet? Mine wear bodycon maxis on holiday or twin piece sets. Although I did get this for the 12yr old for a wedding which she wore with a bolero and white trainers...... she looked fabulous x

This is from mango...

Dts wear body con dresses, I hate them but what can you do, or shorts and best tops. I have no say in what they wear now.

Mine likes the short hollister dresses, they have built in shorts most of them.

At 13, can't she spend some time browsing online and send you the links? She'll know what brands and styles she likes. If money is tighter, direct her towards Vinted; show her how bundles often get you a discount as well as save on postage. You can then veto anything too pricey, poor quality, inappropriate etc.

My tween seems to do this as a hobby and regularly sends me 'links of wishful thinking' 😂 If told to take a look because she actually needs some items, she treats it like a paid research job.

I made use of ASOS's massive range of petite dresses to help the DDs (now older teens) think about what style they wanted but there is alot of age inapppropriate stuff there. Agree New Look is great for age appropriate stuff.

Mine never wore dresses after about age 10 unless for a more formal occasion. Definitely not just because of hot weather. I agree with New Look and Primark at that age.

Mine is that age and is horrified by dresses or 'formal' look. Even to a wedding last year she wore a jumpsuit (with a hoody over it for most of the time!). She wears jeans, leggings, shorts, t shirts, sweaters and hoodies. I assume she'll probably get into dresses more around age 16/school prom etc.

Zara, New Look 915, H&M, Hollister, Primark, Motel....

DSD had a nice dress from Superdry last year that worked for both casual and formal occassions. The neckline was a bit like that jumpsuit linked by @sammyspoon and could be worn off the shoulder or pulled up. I can't see anything similar on their website but it's probably a bit early for summer dresses.