Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dress

Find me some fashion!

alygator — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:55:20 -0800

Help me find this dress! Thanks in advance! Inspired by this post. Seriously, ModCloth can't be the ONLY distributor of this dress. There has to be one Size 2 out there in the ether available for purchase. Right? Please say yes?

Who designed this dress?

Joe Beese — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:11:57 -0800

Who designed the gorgeous dress Anne-Sophie Mutter wears on the cover of her box of Mozart sonatas and related DVD?

Help me find the right dress!

Industrial PhD — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:33:36 -0800

DressFilter: Help me find a dress for my woman that matches these shoes! My girl bought these shoes at the mall a few weeks ago because she fell in love with them, but she really doesn't have anything that matches them =\

So I'm trying to find her a dress that will match them for Christmas!

Here's the shoes.

I was thinking that a little black dress that had a lot of white accents would be good, and I managed to find one, but they are sold out of her size. I don't even know if I'm barking up the right tree, as clearly I'm no fashionista. I do think she would like something of this style though.

Some details:

She's pretty fair skinned, brownish hair that she sometimes colors red. She's 5'1", about 115lbs, and she's about a size 6.

We just had a baby about 6 weeks ago and like most people have been doing the lounge around the house in sweatpants thing while we care for our new addition, but those shoes got her excited about getting dressed up and going out and I want to encourage that =)

Hoping to keep the price ~$65

Thanks HiveMind!

Zig a zag ahhh!

Jubey — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:05:23 -0800

Help me dress as a rock star for Christmas! My office Christmas party theme is come as your favourite rock star and I need ideas! So, it's a fancy dress party and the theme is come as your favourite rock/pop star. For added excitement, it's also karaoke and there is an excellent chance we'll have to get up and actually perform as that star on stage in front of the entire company (I know, I know...I can't sing either and I hate being the centre of attention). Anyway I need ideas.

Additional information, I'm a petite white girl with long dark straight hair in Australia if it helps. It would be nice if I didn't have to spend a fortune on an outfit but I'm open to anything. Lady Gaga and the Spice Girls are already taken. I'm open to dragging in a few others and going as a group, and I'm open to dressing as a guy too. I was thinking Chrissie Amphlett from the Divinyls (Aussie band) as I can cobble together a school uniform from home, or Madonna from her dark haired Like A Prayer days but I was wondering if the hive mind had any other suggestions?

Help the fashion clueless dress for a wedding!

bluloo — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:19:13 -0800

Dress Filter: I've never been to a wedding before. Help me figure out what to wear! So, this is my first big wedding that I've been to. It is in December, in Michigan, so warmth is a factor (although it will obviously be inside, but I've been told there will be moving between buildings). The ceremony is at 4pm. I had picked out this dress to wear with some sparkly shoes and dark tights, but the website changed collections before I could order it. It seems like they have an archive section, but it hasn't been added there yet, so I thought I might call customer service and see if there was anything they could do on that front (I really loved that dress).

But, if that isn't a possibility, help me pick another dress. Some info about me: I'm 5'11, a size 14/16 (in the process of losing weight) which I carry disproportionately in my tummy (although Spanx help!), and I have dark brown hair, brown eyes, and light skin. I'm hoping not to spend more than $150 (poor college student), though for the right dress I will (especially if it's something I can wear again to special occasions). Bonus points for matching shoes (size 11) and/or wraps/accessories. So, help me Hive Mind! :-)

How can a guy dress more sexy?

oxit — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:19:46 -0800

How can a guy dress more sexy? Being a guy I have a good understanding how women can dress more sexy, but for myself I have little clue. How do I dress more sexy for the opposite gender?

I have a decent wardrobe of things that I bought specifically for their looks and I do actively combine them so that they fit together and I supposedly look good. Still I wouldn't say it or I ever look sexy or hot.

If this is a stupid question, because (1) I already do look sexy, or (2) I have to behave sexy instead or (3) ... feel free to let me know, also.

[Background: Central Europe, 30-ish, average sporty, fashionable, and outgoing, healthy BMI]

I need to find shiny sparkly clothes.

jhighmore — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:24:23 -0800

So my friend has some sort of overdeveloped magpie region of her brain and loves sparkly shiny clothing (think sequins, covered in glitter). Where can I find something extra special for christmas for her? Skirts, tops, dresses - hell, even pyjamas or accessories. I would love your ideas of where to purchase such sparkly items. UK-based is very preferable. Budget of £50 but preferably a bit cheaper. Thank you all in advance!

How do I make a costume out of a wedding dress?

libertypie — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:41:55 -0800

How can I turn a wedding dress into a Halloween costume without destroying the thing? Okay, so it's not quite a wedding dress (it's a debutante dress, actually), but it's pretty, and conceivably could be used by someone for actual marriage so I don't necessarily want to smother it in fake blood. It has a pretty typical circle hem and straps.

That said, if someone has an amazing costume idea I'll drag the thing behind a freaking truck. I just feel like the "zombie bride" thing is a little bit done and am curious what else the hivemind has lurking in its recesses. The crazier the better.

Let's play dress up!

mostlybecky — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:45:25 -0800

Help me (a female with basically no female friends to ask) accessorize this red cocktail dress! (hair & jewelry) I'm headed to a midday fall wedding in a week and after some fruitless, perfectionist dressing shopping here (in Boston), I settled on wearing my recently-found "back-up dress." 2 pics. Chiffon, ruched bust and middle, satin empire waist, layered, fishtail. I am 5'11. I have a subdued gold pashmina, gold strappy sandals on the way, and a gold clutch. I just need to figure out jewelry, makeup, and hair! I have medium length wavy hair with tapered side-swept bangs (can be pinned back), but - and maybe it's because I've looked at the dress pictures too many times - I really like the headband idea, perhaps a gold one with blown out hair? Very mod; to much Mad Men for me. (I'd like to keep my hair down rather then up and slicked to the side.) All curly? However I don't want to look costumey. I want to look tasteful yet fabulous.
Pendant? (I have a 1" gold heart with silver scrolls in it with matching non-dangly earrings very similar to this but bigger) or a larger design? Wide collar style? Choker? Some gold bangle bracelets? I basically have none of these things, so it's hard for me to experiment. Please, I'm pretty much a helpless tomboy, but I'd love your ideas, links to pictures, suggestions for shapes, to give me an idea of what I could hunt for locally to dress this outfit up. I'd like to look nice... I have very few friends, all of which will be there.

Note: I will be dancing my ass off, probably. Poofy bangs and/or complicated hair may not make it past 30 min.

Bump-less dresses

widdershins — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:04:17 -0800

Please help me find some nice dresses that work on a not-so-apple-shaped body! I'm having a tough time finding dresses that look good on my body. I've never had hips or a defined waist, but since my pregnancies my belly has gone from 'never-quite-flat' to 'permanently look about 3 months pregnant'. I'm 5' 8" and otherwise have nice long legs, medium-to-large chest (38 C/D) and broad shoulders. I'm only 10-15 pounds overweight, but it's all sitting up front and center.

While I'm working on getting rid of the belly-fat, I've gotten quite good at picking slimming clothes for my body - V-necks and suit jackets etc, but however I try, I cannot find any dresses that look good.

For skirts, I tend to look for stretchy materials (w/a jacket over it) so the skirt won't look like a circus tent. But stretchy dresses are exactly the wrong thing for me - I look more pregnant than ever. Empire dresses also make me look pregnant, and simple sheaths look horrible. Wide straps are not good with my broad shoulders, and I don't like loud prints.

Googling advice for apple-shapes yields results that seem to be geared towards bigger women than I. Is there another body description for 'fairly evenly proportioned except for my belly'?

Bonus points for links to specific dresses that I can try on in person - I'm in CT w/access to most major brands.

Business dress for the casual girl?

Metroid Baby — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:17:31 -0800

After a few years of hoodies and flip-flops, I'm re-entering a business-casual work environment - slightly clueless and very reluctant about dressing up. Help me adhere to the dress code and look good while maximizing comfort and minimizing effort. Corporate dress codes aren't completely foreign to me: my first few jobs were in business-casual offices. However, I guess they were foreign enough to me that I was approached by two different bosses at two different jobs about needing to dress better. (On both occasions, I asked for ideas/examples of how to improve, and both times I heard "You know that suit you wore to your interview? You looked really great then.") I amassed a collection of twinsets and crinkly dry-clean-only skirts, but I felt dowdy and uncomfortable in them. And I got really, really tired of having to think about putting together work outfits. All in all, not a pleasant experience for me, and it's left me with a vague dread of dress codes in general.

The last time anyone cared what I wore to work was early 2006. Since then, my work environments have become increasingly relaxed: from unenforced business-casual, to casual, to working at home. I love having the freedom to wear what I want to work, and I love working for people who are more interested in my ideas than my wardrobe.

It probably goes without saying that my wardrobe has gotten more and more casual over the past couple of years, too. I've given away a lot of my old work clothes, and I haven't needed to replace them with similar pieces. My typical daily outfit is a t-shirt/tank top, a knit skirt or yoga pants, a track-ish jacket or hoodie, and flip-flops or sporty flats.

In a few weeks, however, I'll be back in an office with a business-casual dress code. I can't very well roll up to work in a tracksuit, as much as I wish I could. I have a few nice skirts and sweaters from my old office days, but for the most part I'm starting from scratch.

Trouble is, I don't particularly like styles that are suit-y or dressy. I've gone window-shopping with the intent of getting ideas for what I could wear to work, and every time I find myself getting shrugging at the career clothing and drifting into the juniors' or sportswear departments. I'm also not into wearing clothes or shoes that I can't walk a mile in. And I prefer my clothes to be as low-maintenance as possible – in the past, anything that's required ironing or dry-cleaning has stayed wadded in a stale wrinkly ball in the back of my closet.

Ideally, I'd like to throw on an outfit in under a minute, walk to work, and look awesome. Too unrealistic? I'd settle for not feeling like I'm wearing a uniform and not wanting to change into pajamas the second I get home.

And if that weren't picky enough, I'd like to get my work wardrobe together without spending very much money or adding too much stuff. I know I'll need to buy a few things (I have only one pair of dressy pants, for example) but I'd really rather not get a whole ton of new clothes.

I've never found a resource that has been particularly helpful. Most advice seems to fall either into "you'll know what's appropriate when you see it" or "you should wear whatever upper management is wearing."

So I'm looking for advice on what to wear, what to look for in work clothes, how to plan outfits, etc. I'm not completely new to dressing up for work, but I feel like I could stand to learn a lot, so even the most basic Garanimals-level tips are fine by me.

Describing a dress shirt.

phrontist — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:25:31 -0800

I'm sartorially clueless. How would you describe this kind of shirt? It's a "dress shirt", sure, but how would you specify the fabric and cut (particularly that type of collar)? Here is another example. I'm looking to buy some shirts like these but when I go to department stores I can only find this sort of thing - which is cut completely differently and uses an extremely thin fabric. Help me articulate the differences.

Please help me find this dress!

triggerfinger — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:11:58 -0800

UK ladies, help me find a dress! Okay, I know this is a super long shot, but I'm wondering if anyone in the UK might be able to help me find a dress that I saw a girl wearing that I LOVED.

The dress was black, with a white embroidery/tribal print and kimono elbow-length sleeves. It did not have a tie-back. It was not a flowy material, but seemed to be a heavier fabric. Though it could be a number of brands, it looked like it could be from Monsoon. It is a recent dress (last year or two) but I don't know if it's from this season or not. I have literally spent two hours looking through websites (Asos, Net-a-porter, Shopstyle etc) to try to find it with no luck and now I must appeal to you in the hope someone is familiar with this dress. I found a VERY similar dress that was sold by Oasis, though this is definitely not the same dress. But it is very similar with the waist band and v-neck (in both the back and front) with the trim. However, as I said, the dress I saw was black with white print and not white with black, like the Oasis dress.

Please can someone help me? I loved this dress and would be estatic if I could find it. Thanks!

80s clothing

dmt — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:30:58 -0800

80s party costume suggestions Just like vegetableagony I’ve been invited to an 80s party. It’s my other half’s 40th so I’m going to have to look the part. My ideas thus far are Robert Smith from The Cure, an 80s rapper or full Top Gun flight-suit but before I hit the charity shops, I wondered if AskMe had any inspired suggestions.

Scared strapless

futureisunwritten — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:39:03 -0800

How can I be less self-conscious in a strapless dress? I got to pick out my own bridesmaids dress for an upcoming wedding in August (hooray for low maintenance friends). I bought this dress in the latte colour.

I love the dress, but I have never worn strapless ANYTHING ever in my life. I'm 5'7, 160lbs and busty. The dress is tasteful and simple, but I feel pretty exposed. I would like to add something to the outfit that covers my upper arms and armpits - preferably not something I have to keep wrapping around myself every ten seconds. I've tried it on a bunch of times and I'm constantly adjusting out of self-consciousness, even though there's no danger of it falling off of me.

I have seen this AskMe about buying strapless bras. So my question is: What would you recommend for making my day in this dress as comfortable as possible? A short cardigan? Double-sided tape? A halter top underneath? Busty ladies, I need your expertise!

Help dress me! (For a themed party).

doctor.dan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:44:32 -0800

I've been invited to a themed party with the following costume rules: Invasion, conquest, exploration, assimilation, sovereignty, or superheroes who save the world! and I have no idea what to wear. Any ideas would be awesome. It's tomorrow night, so I don't have much time to get stuff, and something warm would be preferable (it's damn cold right now).

Accio oxford!

miniminimarket — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:30:56 -0800

Who sells French Toast (or similar) school uniform shirts in the summer in New York City? Looking for the perfect white school uniform long sleeve shirt to complete a costume. Something close to this. Girls wear boys' shirts in the movies, and I'm small, about a boy's size 14. It cannot have a button-down collar. Is there a children's clothing store or even a uniform store in New York City that sells such a shirt during the summer? French Toast makes a nice one, but three places on their store locator have been closed / not in stock. Would rather get it in person at this point, just so I can try it on before.

Thanks in advance.

Where can I find a fabric with a large cobalt rose print on black background?

Ekidnagrrl17 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:54:10 -0800

I am trying to find a fabric that matches the famous dress in the Auction scene in Hitchcock's North by Northwest I am looking for fabric in a large print roses in cobalt blue on a black background

Who am I? I'm the best dresser in town.

mooreeasyvibe — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:14:55 -0800

Who were very well dressed English gentlemen? I'm going to a fancy dress party and I'd like to go as someone who's been drinking pints of sartorial elegance. The following items of clothing could make up the outfit:

monocle
tanktop
cravat
some sort of hat
pipe or cigarette holder
watch on a chain
umbrella
all that kind of stuff

The Chap magazine has the kind of look I'm going for. But who could I say I am?

Need to find this animation.

kaseijin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:50:14 -0800

I saw a really great (seemingly circa 1970's?) stop-motion animation recently, and I really want to find out what it was... It had a folded-paper bird and a sun-dress that was caught in the wind. The bird and the dress flew around together over a bunch of backgrounds that were very washy... like they were painted with watercolor.

Bird and dress fell in 'love' or at least a deep friendship, then there was this smoke monster sort of thing that was composed of a bunch of shapes cut from dark paper or cloth. Dress defended the bird from the smoke, then bird saved dress from being overcome.

The whole thing was silent, save for a fairly calm and classical musical score.

Any ideas, HiveMind™?

Modesty without sweating to death in the heat?

ishotjr — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:35:58 -0800

Where can I find a selection of cotton-blend slips and half-slips in Austin, Texas? I wear a lot of light cotton skirts (mostly knee-length or just above) in the summer that require half-slips underneath. All I can seem to find are slips made of synthetic material that gets sticky and sweaty in the hot summer weather. I tried Petticoat Fair, but all of their cotton slips/half-slips are way too long for me, and seem overpriced. Target and most department stores I've looked in have nothing in cotton. As a bonus challenge, I'm really short, so I need slips that are short.

Where can I find this dress?!

theRussian — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:41:07 -0800

I love this dress! - who made it? Ok, so this dress worn by Teri Hatcher at the Coraline premiere in Sydney is awesome. I certainly can't afford it, but I'd love to find out who made it/where I can get one. Anyone in MeFi land know??

More pics here.

Thanks in advance!!

How to dress (or not dress) on my visit to Cologne, Germany?

RedReplicant — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:33:14 -0800

I'm going to be visiting Cologne, Germany on a research trip at the end of the month-- how should I dress? I'm an American PhD student from an East Coast university, speak decent (but not flawless) German and generally I try to avoid the major pitfalls like bright white tennis shoes, obnoxious t-shirts and fanny packs. However, one of my professors keeps suggesting that if I wear any color at all I will look like a tourist. Generally my uniform is a nice pair of slacks or jeans, a colorful top and a jacket or cardigan. Is that going to look out of place? Any pro-tips would be greatly appreciated, as it's my first time going to Germany alone rather than with a group of students.
Thanks!

Which dress should I wear to the wedding?

delicate_dahlias — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:54:22 -0800

I know it is poor taste to wear a white dress to a wedding, but what about a dress with white on it? I am struggling and need guidance. I am a young woman who has never attended a wedding before, as odd as that may be. A very good friend of mine is getting married in July. I am a size 16, making it difficult to find dresses that look nice on my figure. Additionally, I have no money to spare at this time to buy a new dress. I have only two dresses to choose from:
A wrap-style dress that is patterned with brown and white-ish cream swirls, or a slightly fancier dress that is white but with impressionistic purple, yellow, and green flowers all over it. As you have gathered, both dresses are semi-white. They both fall slightly past the knee in length. I don't want to offend my friend or attract undue attention to myself, but this is really all I have to work with. I would appreciate any and all opinions on this matter!

Where to donate a new black dress?

Kronoss — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:25:44 -0800

Strange circumstances have led me to possessing a nice, brand new black dress that I don't need. Where should I donate it? It looks like it's this dress. The tags are still on it. I usually give all my old ho-hum guy clothes to thrift stores, but I feel like I should do more with this new dress. I know of Dress for Success, but I'm not too sure this dress is the kind garment that would make for appropriate work/interview clothes. But then again, I'm not too well-versed on appropriate women's work wear either. Are there any other organizations that would take this thing?

I'm not looking for a tax deductible type thing either. I just want it to drop it off somewhere where the dress will go to someone who could best use it.