Don't add any colour and avoid patterns! Fashion expert SHANE WATSON reveals how to find the most flattering summer dress for over 50s - and why you can't share your daughter's wardrobe!
Until last month, I would have said with confidence: ‘head to toe white is not something that works on me any more.’
I like white in summer – who doesn’t? – but all white, or ivory, or cream, any dress on the whiteish spectrum is a younger woman’s game.
That’s what most women over 50 have been taught: white will make you look like an ancient bridesmaid faster than an apricot smocked dress.
And then along came Lady Starmer, 51, flying off to Washington DC within days of the election wearing a cream dress (cream on an eight-hour flight!) and overnight making cream on a fifty-something look like the future.
Lady Starmer, seen with her husband Sir Keir, wore a cream dress on a flight to Washington DC this summer, and overnight made cream on a fifty-something look like the future
She chose a £450 Needle And Thread frock for the eight-hour flight
She chose a Needle And Thread dress (£450, needleandthread.com) so beyond most budgets. Even so it gets you thinking. Why not white or cream?
Provided it’s elegant, simple and smart enough to work at a meeting of Nato leaders, the whiteish dress is now top of the list of things we’d like to wear.
The reclaimed white dress is simple, clean and unfussy (the difference between the dresses we can wear and the ones our daughters can) and it comes in two distinct categories.
First up is the breezy, pull-on-and-go summer dress. This is the one you’re wearing on holiday, or when it’s roasting at home. Marks & Spencer has an ivory cotton tiered midi dress with voluminous sleeves (£39.50, marksandspencer.com) that fits the bill.
Or, if your skin tone suits a pearly white, Autograph by M&S has a pretty, loose, V-neck dress with a pin-tucked waist and lovely three-quarter blouson sleeves (£89).
On the pearly white front, there’s a Jigsaw dress that’s been a hit with the fashion editors (£92, jigsaw-online.com).
It’s loose-fit, V neck and lightly gathered under the bust, with wide draped elbow-length sleeves – your classic easy breezy dress – but made extra summery and soft by the textured, slightly crinkled effect, white jacquard fabric that looks as fresh as it feels (and rolled up travels beautifully).
Actress Minnie Driver, 54, wears a sleeveless white calf-length dress in New York in June
Anne Hathaway, 41, in white at a Bulgari event in Rome earlier this year
The second type of reclaimed white dress is a bit smarter. Sessun’s Galaposa cream dress (£107.50, biscuit.clothing) has a similar fit-and-flare shape to Starmer’s Needle And Thread dress but with a button-through front and shirring at the waist.
Don’t be put off by shirring – parallel, elasticised rows of stitches – if you don’t wear the dress tight, it’s not so different to darts and can be flattering.
The other obvious smartish option is some variation on the shirt dress which has been centre stage this summer. There were several on show in the VIP areas at Wimbledon, where the Queen wore a cream Anna Valentine shirt dress style, albeit with pale embroidery on the hemline.
Cos does a V-neck, elbow-length-sleeved shirt dress that’s loose enough to wear on a hot day and smart enough to take you to the office (£85, cos.com); or there’s Jolie Moi’s linen and viscose mix midi shirt dress (£68, johnlewis.com) which is described as oatmeal but is pale enough to pass as cream.
A step up in price is Jasper Conran’s signature Blythe dress (£250, johnlewis.com) a neat fit-and-flare cotton weave shirt dress with a half elasticated waist and a wide fabric belt.
The Queen wore a cream Anna Valentine shirt dress with pale embroidery to Wimbledon
This dress has been getting some attention this summer, not least because it has sleeves, comes in a couple of different lengths and several colours (including white) and it’s smart enough to wear to a wedding (although wearing white to a wedding is still not a good plan, unless the bride is wearing pink).
The great thing about all these dresses is they are no effort to wear.
You can dress them up with smarter sandals – any colour including black – and the same goes for your bag, and hat if you happen to be heading to a garden party.
They work with footbed sandals, flat pumps or flip flops and look great with dark glasses.
You don’t need to add colour, you definitely shouldn’t add pattern.
Keep it simple and grown up and a white dress is quite a revelation.
