Taffeta-free alternatives for the Mother of the Bride's Dress
Fashion Advice, Stuff we love
By
on September 01, 2010
30
I came across your site when I started helping my sister plan her own offbeat wedding. We love your fashion posts (SHOES!) and were wondering if you would consider doing a post on dresses for the offbeat mother of the offbeat bride.The thought of our batik and bluejeans-loving artist mother donning a demure taffeta sheath and bolero for the wedding strikes us all (but most of all my mom) as a little silly, but she'd still like to wear something festive that reflects her special relationship to the bride and groom.
She's stuck, my sister's stuck, I'm stuck. We'd love some offbeat ideas! -Megan
As a self proclaimed fashionista, I thought I'd take the reins on this. While I think it's important for the mother of the bride to dress classy and age appropriate, that doesn't necessarily mean she needs to look like a frumpy old lady. When you feel good, you look good! Your mom should wear something that not only looks and feels good, but that she feel expresses her style. Here are some suggestions and ideas for the Offbeat Moms out there.
My first suggestion is the Peggy Would Dress by Whirling Turban. This peacock blue, cotton dress is a great retro option. This classic vintage shape is very figure-flattering on any body!
For a batik and jean-loving mom, I suggest the Lani Crochet Macrame Batik Maxi Dress. This would be great for a beach wedding or any outdoor wedding. This dress is 100% rayon so it's breathable — but it still has some weight to it. In other words, you don't have to worry about wind blowing the dress over your head. Also, if you want a little more coverage you can always wear a Pashmina wrap or a classic cardigan.
The Urien Aditya Dress from Allsaints is an edgier take on the classic wrap dress. The dress has a light blue pinstripe. The coolest is part is the collar which also doubles as a hood if you get a little chilly. It is 100% cotton which would be great for a summer wedding. Also, if a dress is just a little to short a pair of tights can add some coverage.
If you're still looking for something that's a little more conservative without being completely drab this Fall Holiday Suit by Donna Vinci would be great. Yes, it is a skirt suit BUT it's borderline fuschia! It's a two-piece skirt suit with an embellished collar and cuffs. The funk is definitely in the details. Hat is optional!
Another gorgeous and chic option would be the Alex Evenings Portrait Collar Mesh Dress. It has a ruched, wrapped bodice with a collar, and a swirly A-line skirt. This dress is just plain gorgeous!
If your Mom is like mine and doesn't do dresses/skirts — a pantsuit is the way to go. I suggest the Tahari Two Piece Pant Suit. It's swanky but not to business-y. It also comes in a black and ivory mix, solid red and more!
I couldn't resist the Helene Berman Satin Dress from Nordstrom. I love the brilliant teal color and check out that beautiful rose pattern. I mean really, this dress could work with almost any theme: an afternoon tea wedding, a traditional church wedding, or a 1950's wedding!
I got the idea for the Moonlight Val Stefani MOB Dress off of an OBT thread. I love the celadon color and the swing skirt.
If you're having a medieval themed wedding, why not dress your mom in The Isolde. Isolde is a simple gown with princess seams and long full sleeves. The best part, it's totally eco-friendly! It's made of organic cotton, hemp and silk.
Here's another Whirling Turban non-skirt option for the retro mom.The Sequins is a short sleeved knotted-waist blouse with 40's pinup pants. It has bright orange Poppy blooms on a royal blue rayon fabric. And for a little bling they've added a small copper sequin panel on the shoulder. This would be perfect for a beach wedding, hawaiian wedding or a retro wedding.
The Damianou Dress Set was just too awesome to not include. This slinky, maxi length dress comes with a matching jacket. Totally 1920's flapper girl!
The Cameron Blake Dress would be perfect for a goth, evening, winter or otherwise noir wedding. It has a sweetheart neckline and an A-line skirt that flows to the floor. I love the hand embroidered details around the waistline! Stunning.
Ladies, do you have any Mother of the Bride recommendations you'd like to share?
About Coco Rosenquist
Coco was Offbeat Bride's third intern, and resident fashionista. She lives in Los Angeles.
Sarah said
Oh my goodness… That first dress is just stunning. It would look completely gorgeous on my mother (or I'd like it for myself, even), but I'm not even engaged yet!
Danikat said
Thanks for this!
My mother hated the idea of having to find an appropriate 'mother of the bride' outfit because she doesn't like clothes shopping at the best of times and the typical outfits are not remotely what she'd normally wear.
I've tried telling her when the bride is in dark blue it throws all the rules on what you 'have' to wear out the window and she can wear what she wants but that didn't seem to click. Maybe showing her this post will.
skullcandie said
wow! Thank you SO MUCH for this. Me & my mom are both stumped as to what she wants to wear! This may just give her a bit of inspiration! I too LOVE the first dress and this it would look fabulous on my mom. I also love the 7th dress! thanks thanks thanks.
Stephanie said
I've been eyeballing eShakti.com and just ordered my first dress from them. They have a lot of different styles, and they can all be ordered in custom sizes, made to your measurements, with sleeve length, skirt length, collar, all also customizable, for an extra $7.50. There are a lot of dresses that I think could work for MoB options.
Kecia said
You could also think about an ao dai – not your typical MoB outfit, but still obviously 'special'.
Megan said
I'm the girl who wrote in, initially, and I am LOVING these. So inspiring! Mission: get my mother into that red and blue sequined outfit from Whirling Turban begins NOW.
Offbeat Intern said
OMG, That one was one of my favorites!!! If I could pull something like that off I'd be getting it for myself RIGHT NOW!
Amelia said
Those are great suggestions…I have a groovy offbeat mama too, who I could see digging some of these options. Also, I've been checking out the designer Nataya at http://nataya.com/, a lot of brides go to her stuff for dresses, but she has great guest, MOB, and wedding posse items too.
Lindsey said
My mom is cute and was worried she'd look like a frumpy old thing at the wedding. Luckily, she found a lightweight, fuchsia jacket (blazer? I think it was organza?) and a cute knee length black skirt at Von Maur. She looked adorable.
and then she freaked out for two weeks because she was worried about wearing black to my wedding. (sigh) It was the perfect outfit for her.
Lianne said
Thanks for this post! I ADORE that first dress. (Heck, I want to wear it, forget my mom.)
Karen said
Yes! My mom does not wear dresses and/or skirts full stop!! She is always wearing black v-neck shirts. She found flowy black pants (very full looking) and a black/gold jacket top thing. She looked fantastic and more importantly, she looked like herself! I was all about people coming "as they are" to our wedding and we totally got that.
Vivi said
I used to work at a store specializing in clothing for the "mother of the bride" age group, and I can say that for weddings, its was always Linda Lundstrom.
http://www.lundstrom.ca/Spring…amp;ypos=0
This look is typical of the funkier styles that are age appropriate. And if it wasn't Lundstrom, it was Joseph Ribkoff. Just a heads up for people who don't know where to start with the 40-65 year old woman fashion bracket.
Debs said
I totally love the Peggy Would dress and it'd look fantastic on my mum – but we are in the UK and because my mum is an interesting size and shape buying stuff off the web w/o trying it on first is usually a disaster. Any British OBBs got any ideas for dresses of a similar shape?
Rachel Grant said
I'm a British OBB and my mum is tall, plus sized and hates dresses. She wore black trousers and a stunning teal tunic top from monsoon. Monsoon seem to do more sizes (size 22) in their store than they appeared to online. But if Mum hadn't found that, I think we would have struggled to find something the right size, appropriateness and offbeat!
Noola said
Hi, I'm also British. My mum has never gone in for formal clothes, and had also never bought a whole outfit at once, or found something for a specific event.
She went out for the day to Ascot with a friend and found a wonderful outfit, all from one shop.I know it sounds a funny place to go, but if you have any smart towns near you, a trip to one of their women's clothes shops might do the trick – her outfit was not traditional MOB, but very classy (a fitted orange dress) and age appropriate (good quality material, not too low cut etc) without being at all frumpy. The staff in the shop were helpful and friendly too: they thought about her style and what would suit her, took into account that she was the MOB, made recommendations for accessories etc. The dress was about £150.
Good luck, but whatever happens, like the bride she'll look awesome as a wedding is a happy day and it shows!
irisira said
Where was this post last week??? My mom finally found an MOB dress that she's happy with, but that Whirling Turban dress really would have been perfect.
Darlyngirl said
My Mom was 49 years old when I got married this summer and she also struggled as MOB clothes are often old-ladyish and frumpy- which she is not. She wore a black knee-length dress with a sparkly purple and yellow Joseph Ribkoff jacket. http://www.flickr.com/photos/3…505767394/ and his mom hates skirts/dresses and really wanted to be 'comfortable' so she wore black cigarette pants and a pink jacket that really brought colour to her face (it's also her favorite colour) http://www.flickr.com/photos/3…767394They both looked great and like themselves
Kait Scott said
girrlll your flowers & bridesmaid bouquets were AMAZING!!
Andrea D said
My mom got this cool Jones New York dress for my wedding next year. Its knee length, v-neck and royal blue. Its more like a cocktail dress than a MOB dress. As a bonus, it was on clearance at J.C. Penny's for $40. MOB dresses are so frumpy and conservative and BORING.
Melissa Hazelton said
Ha! My mom is planning on wearing something very much like the Fall Holiday Suit by Donna Vinci! Same colour too! Hers doesn't have the sparkly bits, but then, she's 76, and that's so not her style. I love all these ideas though! Those horrible MOB dresses I've seen in bridal shops are so not all that's out there for MOBs! or Mother's of the Groom either, they want to look nice too!
Lori Del Genis said
A friend saw this post and sent it to me even before I got it through my feed. What a great idea for a post. I'm really tickled that 'Isolde' was listed among all the dresses. You know, I'd actually never thought of Isolde as an MOB dress before; it pretty much looks good on anyone. But it would totally work as an MOB dress. And yeah, Isolde is completely eco-friendly, right down to the organic cotton thread.
Thanks for including it in your list!
(Hrm. Maybe I should start designing MOB dresses…)
::off to make more gowns::
Lori
cicatricella said
ah, wish this post had gone up a few weeks ago! My mum was agonising over what to wear. She ended up finding a great dress that totally co-ordinated with mine and looked lovely on her, but I would have loved to have been able to give her some other options. Sadly I was a bit too busy to do much searching on my own.
Rachel H(C) said
My mom wore a dress with a long flowy jacket that came from Larue's in Mineapolis 10ish years ago. I don't know what sort of things they have now, but that store is where my dad has done some of his best shopping. http://www.larues.com/
vampielinred said
I agree with the fact that "regular" MOB/MOG dresses are just so atrociously ugly. Why do makers of these dresses think that our moms don't want to look great too? My mother is wearing a tan wool suit with a silk blouse (very not "traditional" MOB) and FMIL is wearing a loose, georgette, knee-length dress with a nice jacket over it. Its color (very light/pinky beige) and subtle rhinestone detailing make it very not MOG as well. I think the key for shopping for offbeat MOB/MOG dresses is to NOT search for dresses under than nomiker. Search for suits, sleeved cocktail dresses, or just general styles your moms like, instead.
Alexandra said
For my sister's wedding, our mom had a beautiful royal blue dress, long and spaghetti strapped, in a nice material.
The suggestion about Jones New York is a good one–I have a nice dress by them that I got at Ross for a great discount!
Andie Ratcliff said
The description of Megan's mother's style gave me the best brain-bolt of all time: jeans-jacket bolero! Why isn't this a fashion staple?
Mallory Lynn Bowling said
I must say, my mom wore a smoking hot red little number to my sister's wedding and she looked fabulous! I expect nothing less for my wedding too!
It fit her personality so well, but wasn't like a micro or anything, just above the knee but tight fitting and strapless.
Ssafs said
http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/al…ss/3093951
The Alex Evenings dress (the gorgeous charcoal 5th dress) link was broke. Heres one that should work.
Dithie said
I'm pretty sure my mom is going to be wearing a tuxedo-inspired pant-suit to my wedding — she has a shawl-collared silk vest, a tuxedo shirt, and lots of dangly tangly necklaces all lined up! The YSL ad from the 70s shows the look: http://cs1.fashionising.com/me…ng_ysl.jpg
Jenny said
Want!
Your mom's going to look great!