Decades ago we got together with family in our hometown and my also visiting sister came to our hotel with an indoor pool. We all decided to go swimming and changed in our hotel room. I’m over 5" taller than my sister and many pounds/sizes larger (even more now- only 3 even sizes different then as I recall). Also very different coloring and personalities. I put my swimming suit on the bed and went to use the bathroom, came back and put on my suit. Stretchy but snug. Laughter. My sister substituted her smaller suit for mine- they were the exact pattern! I changed again and we have pool pictures of the two of us in matching suits. We independently had chosen the same suit months before. Not a wedding story but a great minds think alike one.
Our mom wore the same long dress to my sister’s and brother’s weddings, died before mine or I’m sure she would have had a third wearing out of the dress.
Consolation, neither do I. The one that I bought for the black tie gala is long gone… I think kiddos took it to some of their HS formals and eventually destroyed it. All of my formal, dressier dresses are just below the knee or slightly shorter. B-)
I have two gowns in my closet that my mother wore to the White House. One I wore a couple of years ago to my brother’s annual dinner dance. It’s pretty classic - plain dark blue velvet very flattering. The other is a yellow silk late 60’s concoction with a high waist. Looks like something Jackie Kennedy might have worn, but it dates from the Johnson years. I don’t think I’ll ever find an occasion to wear it, but I couldn’t toss it.
There’s a new trend to rent dresses that you’ll only wear once. I think it’s wonderful as someone who might, MIGHT need a very nice dress every… oh… four years or so?
My daughter has rented from Rent the Runway a few times. The dress she wore to my niece’s wedding was stunning and fit her beautifully. As I can not wear a dress off the racks without alterations, I don’t know if renting would work for me, but for my tall thin daughter, it has worked out well. I think you most likely would need a back up dress in the event the rental didn’t arrive, didn’t fit or you just didn’t like it!
@mathmom – you HAVE to keep those dresses! How wonderful that they fit. Interesting that your mother owned both dark blue and yellow. I love every shade of blue but don’t think I have owned a yellow garment of any sort, let alone a gown.
romani—I think that some of the Rent The Runway popularity is due to the constant posting of photos. No one dares being seen in same dress twice. Such a contrast to my college days when formal dresses made the rounds of the sorority house.
I have recycled dresses from 20+ years ago. Some years they fit, some years they don’t, but I would never throw them out b/c it is so much easier to shop in my closet than to scour the stores.
I’ve not heard of Rent the Runway. I have not used this service but I know people who have.
I don’t understand only wearing a dress once. The only reason I’d rent is because my weight fluctuates so much that unless I need something more than once a year, there’d be no point in buying it… I’d likely never wear it again lol.
The safest bet to avoid looking like someone else at a formal event is to wear a black (or simple one-color) dress and bling-orize it with shoes, bag, necklace, etc. or any combination of these items (shoes are a given, of course ). Chances are no one else would wear the same combo.
This isn’t once, but years ago I got a hand-me-down black St John knit (jacket and dress). I wore it to a formal event, then to 3 funerals in quick succession, including my h’s grandmother, my paternal grandmother and my maternal grandfather. It felt like it had bad vibes and even though it was nice and classic, I got rid of it.
At my wedding 30 years ago my mother and her sister showed up in not the same dress, but in dresses made of the same silk fabric. They looked alike too so my friends kept asking me, “which one is your mother?”
When I was in the wedding party as a maid of honor, I had one tea-length dress that made me itch (so I never wore it again but let my sister borrow it for Mardi Gras). I had two other floor length gowns. One I donated to the local HS for kids who couldn’t afford to buy a gown and probably donated the other to Goodwill. For one wedding, the bride and the other bridesmaid & I shopped all over the largest shopping center in the state. At the last store, we found a dress that looked good on both me and the other bridesmaid (who was 5+ inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter than me). I wore that dress for many years after the wedding and believe the other bridesmaid did as well. It fit both of us off the rack and was about $50-75, I believe.
I have seen others wear dresses similar to mine but never seen anyone wear the exact same dress with the same fabric as me (except if we were all bridesmaids). Fortunately, I tend to “clean up well,” & look great in most clothes, so I don’t really care too much if anyone else looks fabulous in the same outfit (might care if I didn’t think I looked too good and the other person looked amazing).
I’m not convinced she would have looked that good in the yellow! I don’t think I look terrible in yellow, but I rarely wear it because I’m just not that fond of it as a color. I’ve got freckly fair skin and brown hair I pretend is more auburn than it really is. The only times people have told me I look good because of the color I had on was when I was wearing salmon - which seems less than obvious to me.
). Chances are no one else would wear the same combo.