Fall Wedding Outfits: The Red Jumpsuit
Is there anything more mind boggling or agonizing then finding a dress, or outfit, for a wedding? It should be easy. There are plenty of places to shop in stores or online. The problem is finding appropriate dresses or looks that make you look like yourself, not show too much skin for your personal preference and not make you look matronly. How do you do it?
First step is reading between the lines on the wedding invitation. If it is a beach wedding or in an unique venue, art museum!, your look can skew casual and not be too constrained by a dress code. If it is semi formal or black tie optional, heaven help you. Just kidding but I would point you towards Rent the Runway.
For me I started scouring the sale section of Nordstrom during their infamous anniversary sale but couldn't find anything that didn't scream, “I'm a cool teen!” or “I'm the mother of the bride; don't look at my body!”. So I moved on. I checked my usual sustainable fashion haunts, Everlane and Amour Vert, but couldn't find what I wanted. The Everlane wrap and slip dresses are pretty much sold out without a restock until after the wedding. Amour Vert is having a great sale with plenty of dressy options but you can't return anything which is a no go for me.
I saw some Free People sale items on Macy's and decided to head over to their main site to check out the selection. Free People can be hit or miss depending on your size, aesthetic and what they have in stock. I didn't have much to lose, beyond browsing time, so I went for it. I found a couple cool dresses on sale and a jumpsuit.
If this was even a couple years ago I wouldn't have looked twice at any jumpsuits. But now that I own one jumpsuit I consider myself an expert. I liked the floral motif pattern on the red background. It had wide legs, a low back and ruffles on the spaghetti straps. I knew sizing would be an issue but the look just kept calling me. I wanted to be the person who shows up at a wedding looking cool especially if it is still hot in September, which it usually is, and dazzle people with my unexpected look. Texas is still a pretty traditional place when it comes to wedding fashion so I wanted to mix it up and this red jumpsuit was the way to do it.
Jumpsuit sizing is more nerve wracking then dress sizing. Since most jumpsuits aren't giant, amorphous yards of fabric they need to fit your chest, waist and hips relatively well or else! I knew it was risky but like all online purchases I validated it with the notion that returns are possible. Just remember the return window, kids!
Earrings from Rocksbox + Free People Be The One Red Jumpsuit
The dress that was on sale has been backordered but the red jumpsuit with zero reviews, a possible red flag, has arrived. And like most fitted one piece outfits it mainly fits on the bottom with lots of room on top. But if I could walk around backwards the whole night it would be perfect!
It also looks great from the front as long as I don't turn to the side. Side boob alert! The sizing had to suffer somewhere and it is always either in the bust or the hips. My hips are living large and usually that's their size too. This means the bust is usually too big. I've also tried to squeeze my hips into a size that will fit at the bust and waist but definitely not in the hips. Neither looks great. So I will either go to a tailor, can you make these boob flaps smaller?, or just return.
Rocksbox Earrings + Free People Be The One Red Jumpsuit
The jumpsuit also runs just a bit too short for me so I will probably be returning. I also tried to mime dancing to see how the jumpsuit would hold up and both straps fell down so probably not the best outfit for me. For Free People the fit and quality was overall pretty good. I would recommend this outfit to anyone who likes the color red, flowers, showing off their back, not wearing a bra and having consistent sizing throughout their body. For me the Be The One jumpsuit was not the one. Maybe the sale dress will be a better fit. Fingers crossed.
