Stepmother of groom outfit needed

[mrsmogg]

I feel like I am going round in circles trying to find the right look so hoping for some inspiration!
Summer wedding , church then marquee at the family home. Dress code is morning suits preferred so I need a hat too.

I am 40, size 10, 5'3 so would prefer midi length but I will get the dress tailored. Not yellow. I am brunette and fairly pale, jewel colours suit me. Would like something classy and contemporary, bonus points if I can wear it again for the races etc. budget up to £1000, would prefer to spend less and happy to buy on vinted etc as well.

Lots of great dresses here. If I were the OP I'd be more worried about choosing my hat tbh.

wow!!!! this is gorgeous

This will probably be too long - I’m 5 foot 2 so get the 🙅‍♀️ to maxi dresses

but I adore the summer colours and think it would look amazing for a wedding guest

https://justintong.com.au/collections/shop-all/products/serenity-dress

Me too!! I would just say to hell with convention & bloody hats & fascinators & all that shite, & just ignore everyone!! What's wrong with a fabulous dress, shoes, bag & jewellery?

I was once persuaded to spend a fortune on a hat by my then-partner's mother (for a family wedding in Norway). It cost far more than my dress. I hated wearing one & we split not long after - I'm sure it was cursed!!

Anyway, I've never worn one to a wedding since, required to or not ... I've survived ... 😁

I've only been to one wedding where I had to wear a hat. I ended up wearing a straw boater hat and, as much as I was dreading it, it felt fine and I was quite pleased with the whole look.

completely agree that hats are difficult but I do love them - always! every day! I absolutely love a hat...... not keen on fascinators but love a hat.

I say, a hats not just for a wedding........ bring back hats!!

They seem to ship from the UK and their website says they don't ship to the US. The "details" tab opens up blank on every dress I clicked on on the website. I like to know where clothes are made and of what.

Two of their dresses showed up on MyTheresa and Harvey Nicks and had fabric content 95% polyester and 5% elstane and 100% polyester.

I’d be tempted to trawl the premium vintage sites for this.

So many of them are so badly set up though!! The photos are crap, & the search tools rubbish ... That includes Vestiaire & The Real Real. What ones do you like?

I used to love one called Hemlock Vintage, but it seems to be winding/wound down.

Don't know where the OP is based, but here in Edinburgh there are still a few proper vintage clothing shops that I've bought beautiful clothes & accessories from over the years, decades in fact - some of them still going since I was at art college!

If I had any really good ones near me, that would be where I would look first. The owners will also keep an eye out for you, I find.

It is! But I don’t have a spare £590 sadly.

This is good advice actually, I stand corrected. It’s hit and miss with quality as it’s hard to judge from the photos unless- like I did once- you happen on something that’s only been worn to one event,ever.
Vintage Prada or McQueen would be my aim, personally, but you’re right, from a shop.

Agree! I'm 40 and think most of the brands suggested are for people my mother's age! Lotta frumpy dresses...

What about Vivienne Westwood, that's what I'd buy if I had the budget! Or VB.

I certainly don’t think the stepmother should be in something frumpy in case they upstage the mothers, nor do I think the outfit needs to approved by the B&G. Do people actually do this?

I would try and find out what colours they were wearing though so you can avoid matching 😂

im rubbish at recommendations and it’s princely a bit low rent but there are some really nice dresses in New Look

The only kind that suits me (I'm tall with long wavy hair) is the 70s floppy wide felt or straw kind. Not wedding appropriate, sadly!

I do think that 99.9% of hats/headwear worn at weddings are dreadful though. Even if the wearer has an otherwise fabulous outfit, something seems to happen to normally stylish women when they go near a wedding hat shop ...

Generally a lot of boob in Vivienne Westwood dresses. Which I think the OP, as SMoG, will want to give a miss ...

Anyone remember the divine Raquel at her son's wedding ...???

Oh I was literally just thinking about that Raquel Welch dress and here it is

Some absolutely lovely things on this thread, and I'm not even a huge fan of dresses, thanks to all.

(I would also aim for vintage from a real shop, ideally 1950s or possibly early 60s. But it's a hit and miss way to buy so I would want a back up.)

The colours in the one on the right are gorgeous.

I have bought vintage online - mostly well under £100 though, so not so much of a risk. The exception being the Bernat Klein dresses & skirts & kaftans I seem to now have a small collection of - but the 70s fit is generally very flexible.

I have bought some lovely dresses & skirts from Etsy in the past, from the US & Europe as well as the UK, & had good experiences.

I still think of what you call vintage dresses - Prada & McQueen - as modern - anything from 2000 onward probably!! So to me they're second-hand designer!! "Proper" vintage I still tend to think of as stopping in the late 70s - but that's because I'm late middle-aged now ... 😬

Wow! That is erm…. Striking? Daring? Really fucking weird?! 😂

But if the main criteria becomes, ‘I want an expensive dress’ rather than, ‘I want a dress that I love, however much or how little it costs’ then something is badly wrong imvho.

Inverted snobbery, I'm told ... the kind of people who think shopping in M&S or John Lewis is for the masses, so they thought this was amusing.

They sound… delightful/charming/hilarious/thoroughly vile. Insert words of one’s choice.

I know what you mean, but I reasoned that to a 40 year old 1990s Prada may seem to be ‘vintage’!
I wonder if there’s a rule: ‘ if it’s x years old= vintage, less than x= preloved/second hand’?!
I agree with PP that there could be something gorgeous at Westwood if it’s possible to avoid the booby styles and do a ‘Raquel’. As iconic as she is,of course.
I hope OP comes back to update us when she’s found her outfit, and has a fabulous day.

It's not just (or even) the cost though - I think it's wanting to avoid the possibility of someone else being in the same dress? And I think the majority of people would want to absolutely negate that from happening - especially if you're MoB/SMoG etc? Hobbs & Phase 8 are the first port of call for many. Rixo & Self Portrait have gone from niche to fairly common for those with an extra £200 to spend.

But I do agree that cost itself (having to have something expensive) shouldn't be the deciding factor. Sometimes though, it can be a lack of confidence issue, rather than being able to show off about how much you spent?

Anyway, going vintage solves all those potential issues for me ...!!!

Unfortunately, Vivienne Westwood stuff is much more limited and less exciting than it used to be. But if I had masses of money and time to spend, I’d be hoping to track down some fabulous vintage Westwood.