Hi lovelies,
I’m back this week with the results from an assignment: finding affordable wedding guest dresses for you all. And let me tell you, it was no easy task! I was shocked: everything nowadays seems to have jumped up at least $200 in price (so dresses from my go-to affordable but cute designers that used to cost $300 are now $500)*, and the trends right now are body-con, cutouts, and sheer. WOOF. To be clear, all of my readers have fabulous figures so can all pull these lewks off, but they’re just not elegant, so not what I’m looking for. Instead, I see you all in fun yet classic designs. They won’t break the bank (I was given a budget of $350), but you’ll look like a million bucks.
TheRealReal finds:
From left: red off the shoulder dress, $204, Saloni, pink floral midi, $300, Rhode, orange long sleeved dress, $117, A.L.C., orange striped dress, $318, Lela Rose, pink and blue maxi, $400, Pucci, (ok yes I broke the rules on the price here, it's just so fabulous!), green floral dress, $485, Rhode (they have this in a bunch of sizes), blue and brown printed dress, $287, Johanna Ortiz (beat up interior but no one will see that but you and all her dresses are in the thousands!), blue jumpsuit, $381, Emilia Wickstead, black floral mini, $125, Marni, gingham dress, $335, Lela Rose, black jumpsuit, $195, A.L.C..
Current season finds:
From left: red fringe dress, $277, Simon Miller, orange dress, $325, Simon Miller, pink cape dress, $268, Amanda Uprichard, green ruched dress, $300, The Wolf Gang, green sequin dress, $328, Tuckernuck, purple tie-dye dress, $355, A.L.C., floral slip dress, $230, Significant Other, navy slip dress, $225, Staud, bubblegum pink dress, $229, Amanda Uprichard, purple long sleeve dress, $319, Rixo, color block dress, $350, Tory Burch.
If money were no object:
From left: feathered mini, $1,200, La DoubleJ, blue sequin dress, $870, The New Arrivals, green midi, $495, Alemais (I want this one soooo much!!), heart cutout dress, $795, Area, watercolor maxi, $1,100, Christopher Esber, strapless pink midi, $935, The New Arrivals, colorblock mini, $1,220, Des_Phemmes, black strapless dress, $1,445, Bernadette.
Alright, hope this helps! Just a reminder that I do one on one styling sessions if you want a more personalized experience, tailored to your unique needs.
XOXO
Louisa
PS: if you really don’t want to spend any money, here’s the mega-steal under $90 edit:
From left: orange and pink dress, $79, Mango, orange halter dress (very Kendall Jenner), $49, Zara, yellow dress, $40, Target, green dress, $90, Zara, blue slip dress, $59, Mango, purple dress (looks just like Alemais!), $58, Asos, brown halter dress, $49, Zara, polka dot dress, $94, Asos, black fringed dress, $69, Zara.
*The Cut wrote a great article on this recently, where they took six different essentially identical dresses, from fast fashion to luxury, to see if/how price and quality were related. The takeaway was that with fast fashion, you’re getting what you pay for (cheap designs that won’t last long), but after the $250 dollar mark, everything is overpriced for the quality that you’re getting. Also, “many brands today price their garments artificially high, knowing they will sell most of their inventory at a discount.” How insane is that? So we should all be sale shopping! There’s an app called Karma, which I just installed to chrome, which alerts you when items you like go on sale. I'll report back on my findings…
Wow! Excellent choices