Affordable casual dresses for a petite 76 year old spending winter in Australia

[SylvanMoon]

I'm a 76 year old 5' size 10 so prefer petite sizes. I'm going to be spending the winter in Australia and am looking for some not-extortionately-expensive casual dresses I can take. I have shorts and trousers, but in the heat actually prefer wearing a dress. I don't wear a bra (have smallish boobs and haven't worn a proper bra since the 60s), so need something that sort-of accommodates that. I'm happy with patterns if they're not too big. I don't really like wearing maxi length, but midi or knee length is fine. I'd also probably be fine with a mini, but think it would look a bit obscene at my age! I'm inclined to buy summer clothing now while it's available, but unsure if waiting a while might be better when things are being reduced at the end of the season. A lot of my favourite clothing are charity shop finds, but I'd rather know that I've got a couple of decent dresses to wear for this family visit. Any suggestions?

Sorry just to be clear do you mean UK winter (Australian summer) or Australian winter?

You may be able to find everything you want at:

https://www.uniqlo.com/uk/en/women/skirts-and-dress

Not particularly dressy but fine for everyday wear. And relatively hard wearing for the price.

Pixie girl, Roman, Next Petite, New Look, M&Co are all reasonably priced. Try the Boden sale too - they do petite dresses!

So confused. You are coming to Australia in winter but are buying summer dresses? I’m in Australia and it’s cold, because it’s winter. Where are you going? If Sydney or Melbourne you will need winter clothing. You’ll only need lighter weight Spring/Autumn clothing if going up far north to the reef or over to the rock (but at the rock you will need to rig up when sun goes down). Apart from that you need winter clothes in winter😁.

My mum is a similar age, though slightly shorter!! Seasalt is quite a favourite of hers for easy to wear dresses.

We're going in December and January, UK winter/Australian summer.

That makes more sense. Def need summer clothes then.

Keeping it simple I’d go on John Lewis or Next website, select petite and cotton as they both have a wide range of brands.

It isn’t simple to be presented with a wide range of brands unless you already have knowledge and experience of each of them. Far easier to pick one or two brands whose products you know to be well designed and reliable - and that you know you’ll enjoy wearing.

I didn't take much and bought mine whilst in Australia, plenty to choose from either in store or from markets.

At your height, most thing labelled as “mini” will be much closer to knee length on you! Best to check actual length

Australian winters are often no colder than UK spring or even summer. I looked at the forecast for Sydney, the coldest it is over next week is 16 and the warmest 19. Those temperatures do not require what I describe as winter clothing, though I appreciate that they might feel colder to an Australian than they would to me.

I’m sure you’re aware but depending on where you’re travelling you might still need some warmer gear. (Victoria, Tasmania, Desert at night, etc)

We're visiting family in Perth for most of the time, but are going to spend 3 weeks travelling elsewhere to give them a break. Haven't yet decided that yet and will book it as internal flights, but possibly Tasmania or the Great Barrier Reef (or somewhere else entirely!).

That's another idea that I had and possibly better than bringing a whole bunch of new stuff from the UK. Are clothes generally more or less expensive in Australia than in the UK?

I found stuff to be similar, some shops are expensive some (esp the big ones) not.I found that often cotton dresses were lined so they look better. Things like t shirts in target(australian cotton, lovely colours) were quite cheap. Get a sun hat from the Cancer Council, really nice washable bretons.