Is The Guardian trolling us with this wedding guest fashion edit?

[alwaystimeforteatime]

Has anyone else seen The Guardian’s "Best Wedding Guest Dresses" article from last week? It's so bad... Even the opening image is a weird choice! (One girl actually looks like she's in pain??) And the clothes are all awful.. Not a single thing I’d wear and most of it looks horrendously unflattering. Am I the only one who thinks this is a list of what NOT to wear to a wedding??

www.theguardian.com/thefilter/2025/jun/06/best-wedding-guest-dresses-uk

Absolutely bloody awful and why is the first one wearing a tarantula on her bodice?
If I went to a wedding looking like that everyone would think I'd joined a weird cult.

Gaslighting is The Guardian's speciality. I'd expect nothing less.

I was in deep shock from the photographs originally but please do not attempt to read what she has written. I really really hope it was an AI job because how does someone who writes so poorly get a job as a journalist?

@alwaystimeforteatime 'Chore' is, I think, a reference to chore jackets, which were historically a form of workwear for farm and industrial workers. Purists would presumably consider acceptable colours for these to be traditional shades of blue, khaki and brown, as opposed to electric purple.

I do agree that the writing is about as clear as mud.

It reads like it's been badly translated from another language - eg workwear somehow becoming "a chore"?

I think it's an age thing. Most are fashionable in the here and now, but probably not what someone in their 40s up would consider fashionable or even nice.

I quite like a couple of them 😳😳😳

Blimey. The only one I'd wear is the Me+Em green maxidress, but only after watching a bunch of early '70s blaxploitation flicks and kicking some ass. And whatever do they mean by "the necktie could double as a fun prop for dancing"? The Limbo?

[Whisper: I quite like a lot of these. None are necessarily what I'd wear but some do look good and I'm 56 - I wouldn't expect the fashion section to look like me]

This has to be some sort of extended experiment about outsourcing journalism to ChatGPT surely? That header photo looks like one of those AI images generated by something that isn't human, hasn't seen a human and certainly has never attended a wedding.

If it's not and it was written by an actual human, then my argument for 'there are some things AI will never be able to do better than people' is in absolute shreds.

I love the red Rise and Fall organza. Quite like the Free People pink midi. There are a couple of others I quite like. But very much enjoyed the awfulness of many others.

I checked ChatGPT and it gave me a selection of nice dresses.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts too! The pink silk dress about three entries in could look quite nice, but the shoes they’ve put with it makes the model look like she’s escaped from an institution. And why has the woman in the Martha dress had her hands amputated?

I gathered 'chore' was a reference to chore jackets - but I stand by my comment that the caption still barely makes sense!! I imagine there are plenty of aspiring journalists who would love a job at The Guardian... how someone who can barely write a coherent sentence, let alone put together a halfway decent fashion round up got the job is beyond me!!

I mean, I'm all for steering away from the bog-standard Wedding Guest Attire look but those are....sheesh.

I saw the green-with-a-splat-on-the-front being referenced on Twix - someone begged that if anyone saw her wearing anything like that they were to stage an intervention.

My favourite is the fourth from end - who wouldn't want to go to a wedding in spangled pyjamas? It's like David Bowie lost an argument in the glitter aisle of Hobbycraft.

Cross posted with @blackberryhill - thanks for the explanation, I'd never heard of a chore jacket!

Guardian fashion has always been awful and I wonder who they think their target audience is. No-one with any dress sense that’s for sure.

If you are referring to the stock photo at the top, I don’t suppose they are suggesting going sans shoes to a wedding so why would they be suggesting any of what is happening in that image is good for a wedding.

Thanks, OP. I needed a laugh today.

Most of these are horrific. The first one reminded me of Grayson Perry

Someone on BlueSky made the below comment about the leopard print dress 😂

"is the entire thing a weird troll? fascinated by some of the choices on display there - this one is ideal if the message you want to send is "I fucked the groom, and I'll try to do it again tonight if you're not careful""

Oh my word, there are so many gloriously batshit and hideous choices there that it is difficult to single any of them out as even more batshit and hideous than the others, but I might nominate the Sandrine midi dress

"A great bet for a wedding that you know will run into the wee hours, the leopard print also means you’ll be able to wear this dress to multiple dos. straight to bed, because it is clearly a nightie"

Dear god. Most of those are horrific. The ones that aren't ugly and unflattering are way too casual for even the most dressed down wedding.

The header photo is from Getty Images so clearly a stock image. If you search the photographer, you can find other awkward photos from the same series with the pained looking guests: https://www.gettyimages.at/search/2/image-film?family=creative&phrase=wedding%20guest%20Maria%20Korneeva&sort=mostpopular

The image and the clothes are entirely unrelated to the article itself. Pretty lazy AI journalism going on.